SL Perfection

The owner of this car has been a long time customer of the SLSHOP, and knew our work. He already owned an SL, but ‘SOB’ was to become something very different… One for touring, one for show. One to experience gritted roads and long distances, the other to experience nothing more than the admiration of onlookers. This car left the SLSHOP looking better than the day it left the factory back in 1986.

The first owner of this car tastefully specified it with red leather interior, superbly matched to the silver coachwork. In rebuilding this car we went back to the data card to establish how it looked in 1967. If you attend classic car shows, you may well recognise this one… it appeared on the SLSHOP’s exhibition stand at a number of classic car events.

What is the significance of the BPJ plate…? It stands for Bruce’s Pride & Joy! Bruce Greetham put 6 years of blood, sweat and tears into his Nautic Blue 500SL. The exceptional work completed by Bruce and the team resulted in a ‘Best In Show’ award at The 2016 SL Day. ‘D44BPJ’ has enjoyed numerous magazine features but is no garage queen – Bruce enjoyed more than one European trip with this car.

The owner of this car pulled no punches when writing the build brief. He simply said ‘build the very best car that you can’, and the challenge was laid down. The finished item is inch perfect, right down to the fit and finish of every component. You may have seen this car in the pages of Classic & Sports Car Magazine.

Using the 300SL as a base, we lightened the crank and flywheel, ported and polished the cylinder head, installed a performance camshaft and replaced the ignition and fuelling with modern components. Our team was also able to shorten the throttle linkage, which transforms the way the three litre six cylinder responds through the gears. With a custom exhaust and manifold, the 300SL SportLine produces 255bhp, which is more than a factory standard 500SL.

After the launch of our Signal Red 300SL SportLine, an international customer got in touch. This client lives in a warm country with wide open roads, and thought a 500SL SportLine V8 with a manual gearbox would be the perfect weekend car. After choosing the specification, the build got underway. The end result? Nothing short of epic.

The SportLine project taught us a great deal about the limits of the R107 chasis… and those limits are only set by your imagination! We took a UK 450SL, fitted American spec taped up headlights and went racing. Well, there was a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea. Read on to find out more…

One of the most exciting builds we’v been a part of recently was the SLC Rally Car, destined to compete in the Classic Persia. This event is a gruelling, long distance rally across rough surfaces. It requires reliability and performance without compromising on comfort. The SLC was a natural choice.