Mercedes-Benz 420SL

CATALOGUE AMENDMENT: The current owner acquired this car in 1996, not 1992 as previously stated.

Looking more handsome with every passing year, the Mercedes 107 Series roadsters are also amongst the best made cars ever built and came in a wide range of engine sizes from 2.8-litre straight sixes to 5-litre V8s. Nicknamed the 'Panzerwagen' by it's German development engineers in the late 1960s, the square-jawed good looks were a deliberate ploy by the MB management to distance it from its more feminine 'Pagoda' W113 predecessor.

Fast, comfortable and discreetly understated, it has a matchless ability to munch up the miles for year after year without ever seeming to falter. No wonder it stayed in production fundamentally unaltered from 1971 until 1989. Just try opening and closing those doors - they don’t make ‘em like that any more!

This 420SL is the rarest of the breed with just 2,148 made between 1985 and 1989. It is powered by a creamy smooth 4.2-litre V8 producing 215bhp and 289lb/ft of torque, sufficient to give it a top speed of 130mph. Being such a late model it benefits from the desirable four-speed auto gearbox and a galvanised body.

The current lady owner acquired the car from Hills Mercedes-Benz of Shrewsbury in 1996 with just over 20,000 miles on the clock, before which, following a period as a demonstrator, it had only had one other lady owner. Since then the car has always been maintained by Hills and has no fewer than 26 service stamps in the book to date, the last at 101,104 miles (now 103,040) equating to an average service interval of less than 4,000 miles.

Looking most appealing in Nautic Blue with a beautifully preserved grey hide interior and the desirable rear seat option, the car is said to drive very well and has an MOT until October 2012 and is taxed until next April. It is also fitted with a Tracker anti-theft device. In 2001 the car was treated to a body refurbishment and respray by SL specialist Chris Byrne of Stoke-on-Trent with photos and bills on file. Apart from a mark on the passenger door and a scuff on the front right wing, the car still looks most presentable today.

Supplied with all its original handbooks, it is ready for a new owner to drive away today. It is only reluctantly being sold due to the advancing years of it's lady owner.