Trophy Car Comes of a Certain Age

Sometime soon a lot of successful 50-something women may seek out the 450SL they couldn’t have in their teens

by Rob Sass

Since the 1950s, the glamorous SL had been the Marlene Dietrich of the Daimler-Benz lineup. And like the old torch song, customers found themselves falling in love again with each new model. It was no different in 1972 with the introduction of the 350SL.

The new SL had two internal designations―a formal one for its DB project number R107 and der Panzerwagen―an informal one bestowed by its engineers in honor of the car’s 3,600-lb-plus curb weight. While not incredibly porky by today’s standards (a new Corvette or a Mustang will come close) it was chubby enough to make a mockery of the SL designation which stood for “sports-leicht,” German for “sports-light.” Strangely, Mercedes did rally the car with some success, mainly in even heavier SLC (2+2 coupe) form.

MORE WEIGHT, LESS SPORTING

More weight also meant it was also considerably less sporting than the outgoing “pagoda roof” 280SL―sort of like a German 1955–57...