The Truth About Cars » R107

Junkyard Find: 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SL

Murilee Martin — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:00:15 +0000

The Mercedes-Benz R107 is one of those cars that often has a vast difference between the typical perceived value and the typical price you can get when you try to sell one. I’ve seen plenty of these things in running condition for three-figure prices, and I’ve seen them fetch big bucks when they’re extremely nice. Once an R107 gets some blemishes and/or doesn’t run right, its value usually drops down to the scrap range, and that’s why they often show up in wrecking yards and even in 24 Hours of LeMons races. Here’s a Malaise Era 450SL that was an emblem of conspicuous consumption when new and still shows some signs of its former glory as it awaits The Crusher in a Denver wrecking yard.
I might need to go back and disassemble this HVAC control unit, just to see how its analog heart works. Probably a lot to go wrong inside, but odds are that it worked for at least a couple of decades.
Power came from a 180-horsepower, 4.5 liter SOHC V8 engine, which wasn’t bad for the darkest days of the Malaise Era. This car was a bit pokey, given that it scaled in at 3,595 pounds (!), but the luxury was 100% real.

Junkyard Find: 1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SL

Murilee Martin — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:00:51 +0000

When I lived in California, I’d see R107s in self-service junkyards all the time; since moving to Denver a couple of years back, I see them only occasionally. There was this ’78 450SLC last summer and that was about it. Last week, though I found this screaming yellow Malaise Era kokainwagen.
This one entered the used-parts ecosystem in fairly beat/rusty condition (yes, Midwesterners, I know this is amateur-grade rust), and quite a few bits have already been picked from it.
I like these cars so much that I’ve been trying to buy the Rally Baby Racing ’75 450SL (which is street-licensed) for the last ten months. It’s a slow and heavy race car, but would look great on the street.
This engine would look great in a fenderless ’39 Opel, ja?

Junkyard Find: 1978 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC

Murilee Martin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:00:57 +0000

The Mercedes-Benz R107/C107 is one of those cars that tends to be valued according to a binary system: a near-perfect example sells for a healthy five-figure sum, while one that’s even slightly beat is worth about as much as an ’86 Nissan Sentra with an alarming rod knock and a glovebox full of used syringes. That means that examples of Mercedes-Benz’s SL-Class machine of the 1970s and 1980s are not at all uncommon in self-service wrecking yards.
At the same time, most car freaks who never set foot in wrecking yards just can’t believe that you can get running 107s for pretty close to scrap value. The outcry of “that ain’t no $500 car!” that I heard when Rally Baby Racing‘s 1975 450SL showed up to to the Real Hoopties of New Jersey 24 Hours of LeMons was just deafening. Rally Baby applied the large economy size bucket of Bondo to their car, than shot a looks-great-from-100-feet coat of silver paint onto it while in a dirt field at New Jersey Motorsports Park on the night before the race. Bugs in the paint and all, this (street-registered) race car looks so good that I’ve been trying to buy it ever since.
Most of the junkyard R107s I’ve seen have been the 80s-coke-dealer-motor-pool 560SL, and they’re much more common in California yards than here in Denver. Still, I know that if Rally Baby Racing ever retires their race car and sells it to me (or if I build one myself) I’ll have no problem finding parts.
It’s hard to beat a red leather interior if you want to be King of the Malaise Era.
From the finger-bustingly cramped engine compartment stuffed full of 4.5 liters of overhead-cam V8 to the bewildering electrical system to the über-upscale interior pieces, these cars are challenging for the backyard mechanic and utter nightmares to restore if you want a really nice one.
They’re also shockingly heavy for their size and not particularly quick; the ’78 450SLC had 180 horsepower to move 3,715 pounds.
What was the original price tag on this totally-used-up Benz? $27,090, or about $95,500 in 2012 dollars.