1957 Mercedes-Benz 190SL

The 190SL was introduced in 1955, the year Mercedes-Benz swept all before it on the Mille Miglia with the 300SLR, and the graceful new two-door convertible grand tourer was sold alongside the road-going version of the SLR, the 300SL, whose styling it strongly resembled. In fact, the underpinnings of the two cars were quite different and, while the 300SL had a purpose-built tubular spaceframe (W198), its smaller sibling was built on a shortened version of the 'Ponton' saloon (W121) platform, which was of monocoque construction. The 190SL also boasted an all-new engine, an over-square SOHC straight-four unit of 1,897cc that produced some 105bhp, which was sufficient to propel the car to a maximum speed of 112 mph. The engine was coupled to a four-speed manual gearbox operated by a lever between the seats. The suspension comprised double wishbones and coil springs at the front and a coil-sprung swing axle at the rear. Steering was by recirculating ball and braking by power-assisted drums all round. Built to the highest standards and among the quickest comparable cars of the time, the 190SL featured a well-appointed cockpit, notable comfort for its occupants and relatively generous luggage space. Under the circumstances, even the steep asking price did nothing to deter purchasers and by 1963, when production ceased, over 25,000 had found homes.

The SL we have here is a car that was brought back to the UK from Malaysia in 2017. It was enjoyed by a family of classic car enthusiasts who used it to attend shows in London amongst other cities and the history file shows their intent for it to become a 'daily driver' at some point. We might suggest that was a touch aspirational, however, they invested over £5,000 upon purchase to have the Mercedes thoroughly shaken down and brought up to standard. At some point in its life, the car has been converted to right-hand drive and this conversion work has been inspected by reputable specialists, Redcastle Classics. They have reassured our vendor as to the safety of the conversion that was carried out (they prefer not to comment on the quality of other people's work) and subsequently were retained to carefully recommission the SL car prior to our forthcoming sale. This attention included extensive work on the brakes, fitting track rod ends, axle pipes and more. There is a detailed invoice in the file covering this recent work. A brand new dark blue soft top has been fitted and four new tyres popped on just prior to the MOT.

With these 190SLs reaching such great heights at auction recently, a well-guided, right-hand drive car in classic Mercedes Silver must surely attract the attention of anybody hoping to find a very stylish soft-top classic in which to enjoy the arrival of summer.