The Mercedes R129 SL

MERCEDES - BENZ

The Mercedes R129

From the 280SL – SL73 AMG

(1989 – 2001)

By Bernd S. Koehling

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 Bernd S. Koehling

All rights reserved

CONTENT

Foreword

The Cars

SL280, SL300, SL300-24, SL320, SL500, SL600 (1989-2001)

SL36, SL55, SL60, SL70, SL73 AMG (1993 – 2001)

Development of a milestone

Higher safety standards

First integral seats in an open car

An automatically folding soft top

An improved suspension

The new SL

Car design of the year award

Introduction of the first V12

A new model nomenclature and revised engines in 1993

The 1995 Facelift

The 1998 Facelift

The navigation system

The AMG models SL60, SL55, SL70, SL73, SL36

The special editions

- Special Edition 1995

- Mille Miglia 1995

- La Costa Edition 1997

- 40th Anniversary 1997

- Special Edition 1998

- SL Edition 2000

- Final Edition 2000

- Formula One Edition 2000

- Silver Arrow Edition 2001

- Other special editions

The tuning scene

- Brabus

- Carlsson

- J. Hagmann

- Koenig Specials

- RENNtech

Testing a RENNtech SL600 7.4

The Middelhauve and Karmann SL

Fly-by-wire

The sales performance

Technical chapters

The R129’s VIN explained

The R129’s data card

The paint options

The R129 buyer’s guide

Which R129 version to choose

Price development from Nov. 2008 to Nov. 2016

The technical specifications

- The engines

- The performance data

- The suspension etc.

The annual production data per model

About the author

One last thing

FOREWORD

First of all I would like to thank you for having purchased this book about the superb R129 SL, one of the best designs of the Bruno Sacco team. When the R129 was introduced in Geneva in spring 1989, it was applauded for its timeless beauty, plus the superior technical and safety innovations. For Daimler-Benz it was a quantum leap forward and put the company at once ahead of the sports car gang. The R107 had managed to sell quite well during its entire production run and when it was announced that it would be replaced in the not too distant future, everybody wanted to have one of the last ones. In Germany it was for the last few years not even anymore on the official list of cars that the company offered. With the launch of the R129, all of this changed. The R107 looked suddenly not only old, it looked at least two car generations old, which is actually was, given its eighteen years of production. From the beginning the new SL was a huge hit with open sports car aficionados. While its predecessor was more of an extremely well built Teutonic touring car, the new SL managed to put a new meaning behind that S in SL again. Although the new purpose built plant in Bremen, Northern Germany, was quickly adjusted to produce 25,000 units annually, it took at least European customers in the early 1990s four to five years from signing the order until the car was finally delivered. That should only change after the smaller and cheaper SLK had been introduced.

This reference guide covers the car with all its variations, AMG versions, special editions and some of the tuner activities with models from Brabus, Carlsson, Hagmann, Koenig and Renntech. Although there were a lot more companies around that dealt in one way or another with the tuning of this SL and other Mercedes cars, it would have been impossible to cover them all, so I ask you for forgiveness, that the list that made it into this book is somewhat subjective. An interesting R129 is also the one that can be driven by side-sticks. Using Airbus aircraft fly-by-wire technology, the car comes without steering wheel and pedals. It will be controlled by two sticks, positioned on the door armrest and the center console.

The Mercedes SL is, as CEO of Daimler AG Dr. Zetsche put it recently, an automotive icon. While the early models were more developed with an eye on class, elegance and most of all performance, the more modern versions have added comfort and luxury to it. No other sports car from any manufacturer in the world offered such a convincing package at such a price level. And while the quality of later Mercedes cars suffered under the Daimler-Chrysler umbrella, the R129 was still built to standards that had made the brand famous.

This revised edition comes with a comprehensive buyer’s guide, explains in detail the cars’ VIN/FIN and data card and has a look at their recent price development until November 2016. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

December 2016

Bernd S. Koehling

Mercedes-Benz R 129 series (1989 to 2001)

Development of a milestone

It was again the Geneva Motor Show, where Mercedes-Benz presented in 1989 an SL that was a new interpretation of the SL concept in every respect. The car was the undisputed star of the show. It was the first SL with a fully automatic opening soft top. Fully automatic meant that the lucky driver did not have to move any levers anymore or did not have to stow the lowered top manually underneath a cover. It meant for the first time that you pushed just one single button from within the car and then magic would take over. Never mind that Americans had offered such a system already way back in the 1950s. For Daimler-Benz it was new territory. The SL was prominently displayed at the Geneva show on a turn table and had its top plus its metal cover opened and closed day-in, day-out. All it took were 30 seconds to either open or close it. Even if one had seen it already before as a visitor, somehow that magic and the elegant, beautifully proportioned lines of the car pulled you back to the Daimler-Benz exhibition stand to see it time and again.

A late 1974 targa proposal with side curtain borrowed from the SLC C107

For aerodynamic reasons the new design wanted from the beginning to stay clear of the pagoda roof of its predecessor

Both predecessors had to live with initial criticism regarding their design. The pagoda roof was not universally appreciated when the 230SL was launched in 1963. And for European journalists the 350SL was too Americanized, when they first saw it in 1971. This time it was different. Head of the design department Bruno Sacco and his team had done a superb job. Sacco has started work in Stuttgart in 1958, a little bit later than his colleague Paul Bracq. Both were in one way or another involved in the design of the iconic Mercedes 600 and both, one being Italian and one being French, had little respect for what the Daimler-Benz stylists called in those days: traditional design. So when both proposed for the 600 to do away with much of the famous front grille and adopt horizontal headlamps instead, they created somewhat unwillingly, quite a stir. It took the company years before it was ready to accept similar design proposals from both designers again. The first one was the 230SL, which was accepted, as it was not the front of a more traditional sedan.

Italian born Bruno Sacco started work at Daimler-Benz in the late 1950s

Although styling or designing cars was and is mostly a team effort, there are usually just a handful of people, who are responsible for the final outcome of the car. With the pagoda SL it was next to Paul Bracq, who designed the iconic roof, his superior Friedrich Geiger, who was responsible for the car’s overall design. He was also the man, who had designed the famous 300SL of the 1950s and the R107. In case of the R129 it was mainly Johann Tomforde. Born in 1946, he studied car and product design after an apprenticeship in automotive mechanics in Hamburg. In summer 1970 he joined the Daimler-Benz design division, which was in those days still headed by Friedrich Geiger. As a young engineer he had created a bit of a stir among his Daimler-Benz colleagues, when he presented in 1972 his vision of the car of the future for the year 2000 in form of a small city car with electro engine. In those days he did not know that it would take the company another 35 years until such a concept would be realized in form of the Smart and he certainly had in those days no idea that he would be made in 1992 in charge of this project. That way he is considered today the father of the Mercedes city car Smart.

The three Smart pioneers in 1992, l to r: Chr. Baubin, Joh. Tomforde, H.J. Schär

But in those early 1972 days he was brought back fairly quickly to reality by his superiors, among them member of the executive board and future CEO of Daimler-Benz Werner Breitschwerdt, who told him: that was a mighty fine exercise, young man. But now we want to see you designing real cars again.

Since 1977 he worked as senior stylist for car-design in both Sindelfingen and the Daimler-Benz design studio in Sunnyvale, California. At the same time he was appointed honorary professor for design and technology at the University of Pforzheim, Germany. At Daimler-Benz his major project was now the new SL. Bracco wanted him to follow