SL (R107)

From Pagoda to Grand Tourer The 107 series was approved by the Mercedes-Benz board on 18 June 1968 and shown in spring 1971, replacing a W113 in production since January 1968. The change of character was deliberate. The Pagoda had been a light, upright six-cylinder car; the R107 was the first SL with a V8, the first to carry the factory's R prefix rather than W, and in United States specification close to 350 kg heavier. The engineering case rested on Bela Barenyi's crumple-zone work: a rigid passenger cell, A-pillars and screen surround about fifty per cent stronger than before and bonded in for stiffness, the fuel tank moved above the rear axle out of the collision zone, a padded dash with recessed switchgear, and large ribbed tail lamps shaped to shed road dirt and stay visible. What the SL had been was a sports car; what it became was a grand tourer with a hardtop.

The Engine Ladder No other Mercedes passenger car carried so many powertrains under one body. The 350 SL launched with a 3.5-litre M116 V8 at 147 kW (200 PS). A 4,520 cc M117 followed for export, badged 450 SL from 1973 and by far the best-seller at 66,298 cars. The oil crises brought the 2.8-litre M110 twin-cam six in July 1974. March 1980 brought the first substantial update: the alloy-block 380 SL replaced the 350 SL after nine years, the 500 SL replaced the 450, the three-speed automatic gave way to a four-speed, the hardtop became standard and ABS appeared on the options list. September 1985 brought the second: a 3.0-litre M103 six revived the 300 SL name after twenty-two years, the 420 SL replaced the 380 SL in Europe, the 560 SL arrived for export markets, and the front axle and brakes were reworked.

Federalising the SL North America took about two thirds of production, and the American cars are a distinct machine. Four round sealed-beam headlamps replaced the European composite units. From 1974 the bumpers grew by roughly 203 mm at each end to meet the NHTSA five-mile-per-hour impact standard, and Mercedes kept them until 1989 even after the requirement was relaxed in 1981. Emissions hardware did the rest: the early 450 SL's 192 hp SAE fell away through the decade, and the 380 SL that followed made 155 to 157 hp against 218 PS for the identical European car - Wikipedia records 9.3 seconds to 60 mph, Sports Car Market 11.5. Only with the 560 SL of 1986, sold in North America, Japan and Australia but not Europe, did American buyers get the biggest engine in the range, and even then the European 500 SL remained the faster car.

The SLC and an Improbable Rally Car From late 1971 the roadster was joined by the C107 SLC, a four-seat fixed-roof coupe on a wheelbase stretched 360 mm, with pillarless side glass and louvred rear quarter windows. It is the only time Mercedes built its S-Class coupe on a stretched SL platform, and it ended in September 1981 after 62,888 cars when the W126-based SEC took over. Its afterlife was strange. Mercedes took the SLC rallying, with an all-aluminium five-litre V8 and alloy opening panels, homologated by building 1,636 road-going 450 SLC 5.0s from September 1977. The works cars took the top five places on the 1978 Vuelta a la America del Sud and finished 1-2-3-4 on the 1979 Bandama Rally in the Ivory Coast - the first World Rally Championship win for a V8 and for an automatic.

Eighteen Years, One Silhouette Because the body barely changed, the differences that matter are underneath and inside: D-Jetronic to K-Jetronic to KE-Jetronic, three speeds to four, better steel from about 1976, cavity wax from 1980, galvanised components from 1986, and a 1986 front air dam that cut front-end lift by around thirty per cent. Colour tells the same story - the SLSHOP counts over a hundred factory shades, five of which ran the whole eighteen years, while Mimosa Yellow, Apricot Orange and Cayenne Orange lasted a single season each. The last car left Sindelfingen in August 1989 and the R129 took over.

The 3,839 cc M116 fitted to 1981-1983 cars used a single-row timing chain that stretched and, in service, broke. Mercedes redesigned the engine around a double-row chain for 1984, and Wikipedia records that failures on affected cars were rectified free of charge at the time; Sports Car Market put a retrofit conversion at around $3,000. This matters because these are interference engines: Pelican Parts is explicit that a skipped tooth is worth twenty degrees of crankshaft rotation and will almost certainly put pistons into valves. Chain stretch is read at the crankshaft timing indicator, with the caveat that the reading can be out by up to three degrees, and the plastic upper guide rails are the more common actual failure, a broken rail jamming against the cam sprocket. Chains are treated as a 100,000-mile item across the V8 range, not only on the 380. Beyond that the engines have a good reputation: Hagerty's UK guide calls them all very reliable, with noisy tappets the usual V8 complaint and worn rocker arms the expensive version of it. The unprotected radiator is vulnerable to stone damage, suspension bushes squeak as they age, and the recirculating-ball steering box goes vague and eventually needs rebuilding.

Corrosion first, and in the places the R107 hides it. The Car Classic guide lists sills and lower skirts, the panel above the headlamps, bonnet, doors, boot, floors, wheel arches - rear especially - front subframe and wishbones. Hagerty's UK guide adds the screen surround and bulkhead, and notes the bumpers rot from behind, so look behind them rather than at them. Protection improved over the run - better steel from about 1976, cavity wax from 1980, galvanised components from 1986 - which is one practical reason late cars sell for more than early ones. On V8 cars check the front subframe for cracking and listen for chain rattle on start-up; Car Classic treats corrosion, subframe cracking and chain noise as three reasons to walk away rather than negotiate. Establish which timing chain a 380 is running, since 1981-1983 cars left the factory with the single-row design and many but not all have since been converted. Both roofs matter. The steel hardtop should latch and release without force and its chrome should be intact; a car sold without one is a car that needs one found. Fabric hoods shrink in storage, so check the front mounts engage and that the seals are not letting damp into the footwells. Inside, the checked cloth trim is scarce and hard to match, dashboard tops crack in sun, and air conditioning repairs can need the interior out.

As of August 2026, classic.com's aggregate 107-series page records an average sale of $26,347 across 258 listed cars, with the lowest tracked result a 1979 450 SLC at $500 in September 2025. The per-model benchmarks show how far the range has separated. The 560 SL sits at a CLASSIC.COM Market Benchmark of $30,529 on a rising trend, average sale $30,363, with the deepest supply at 112 cars. The 350 SL benchmarks at $19,492. The two high-volume middle cars are the weak ones: the 450 SL at $14,801 and the 380 SL at $13,737, both falling. Scarce European variants sit above both, the 300 SL at $31,768 and the 500 SL at $28,459, each on single-figure supply. Spread within a model is wider than the gap between models: tracked 380 SL results run from $900 for a 1982 car in October 2023 to $40,464 for a 1985 in June 2026, and 450 SL results from $1,450 to $78,900. Auction evidence tracks the benchmark rather than exceeding it - RM Sotheby's sold a 1989 560 SL in Arctic White over Royal Blue, chassis WDBBA48D5KA100661, under 53,000 miles with a colour-matched hardtop, for $30,800 including buyer's premium at Arizona in 2026.