Mercedes-Benz 500SL Roadster

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Looking more handsome with every passing year, the W107 series Mercedes SL was built at a time when the Stuttgart firm still had a reputation for building cars that made granite feel a bit flimsy.

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.

The cars came in a wide range of engine sizes using both straight-six and V8 engines, but cream of the crop was undoubtedly the mighty 500SL, launched in 1980 with a 242bhp all-alloy V8 that propelled the bruiser from 0-60 in 7.2 secs on its way to a top speed of 140mph. A big favourite among the Hollywood jet-set (two thirds of all these cars went to the States), no episode of Dallas was complete without an SL sweeping up to a Texan oil baron's ranch.

This well presented 500SL has had just two owners from new, the first being a consultant surgeon. First registered on 28th August 1984, the surgeon enjoyed it until November 1989 before passing it on to its current long-term keeper. He continued to have the car regularly serviced by local independent Mercedes-Benz service garages, the more recent work being carried out by Terry and Everton of Cilgerran who stamped the book at 102,000 miles in 2010 and again in 2012.

Its most recent attention was ministered by Mercedes-Benz specialist Steve Cranfield who performed an oil service and brake check in November 2014 at just under 111,000 miles, with just a few miles having been added since then. It is MOTd until November 2016. Bidders are advised that although the hard top is present, it has a small crack in the rear window.

This attractive and now highly fashionable white SL will be driven over 160 miles to the auction and is only on offer due to an impending house move. Decent, well cared for, low-owner examples of the top-of-the-range SL are getting hard to find, this five-litre V8 bruiser fitting the bill nicely. 

AMENDMENT: The consultant surgen was the second owner, not the first.