The Mercedes-Benz SLK usually doesn’t get a lot of love from enthusiasts and I totally understand why. The first generation was a competition with the BMW…
Comments closedTag: Roadster
In 1993, my father purchased a W113 Mercedes-Benz 280SL Roadster. It was green with black MB Tex and do you know what? It looked, and felt, old. At that point, it was a 22 year old car that had been mostly forgotten by the enthusiast world. After all, the dated W113’s replacement – the oh so 80s even though it was from the 70s R107 – had just gone out of production, itself replaced by the thoroughly modern R129. I loved the R129 at the time, and the W113 seemed like a dinosaur by comparison. But my father loved the look of the W113, and so for the then princely sum of mid-teens he purchased a relatively clean, reasonably low mileage and (almost) fully functional Mercedes-Benz SL.
Fast forward the best part of two and a half decades, and the SL market has gone completely bonkers, awakening to the fact that the W113 was (and still is) a beautiful, classic and elegant design. I’m not even sure you could buy a non-functional, rusty wreck of a W113 for the same price my father paid in 1993 – and an expensive restoration would await you.
Why do I mention this?
Currently, almost no one has time to even consider the 8N chassis Audi TT. It’s old, with the last of the first generation produced 12 years ago and its replacement – the 8J – has also fully completed a production cycle. It doesn’t have the super wiz-bang computers, million horsepower engines, or cut-your-hand-on-the-front-end styling of the new models. A fair amount lay in a state of disrepair; crashed, thrashed and trashed to a point where they’re nearly given away – quite seriously, there’s one near me for $1,500. But find a good one, and I think now is the prime time to grab a clean TT that will be a future collectable. This Roadster 225 quattro 6-speed with only 42,000 miles suits the bill perfectly:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2001 Audi TT Roadster 225 quattro on eBay
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To all our American readers, Happy Thanksgiving! To all our readers outside the United States, sorry you have to work today but hopefully today’s car makes up for it. The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG was the spiritual successor to the legendary 300SL that was produced from 1954 to 1963, mainly because of it’s distinctive gullwing doors and blistering performance. When the SLS launched in 2010 it not only wowed people with its design but with it’s power that launched this car to 60 mph in the mid-three second range.
Of course like the original 300SL, a roadster would soon follow for the SLS, which is what today’s car in California is. I like to think of the roadster versions of the 300SL and SLS like when Michael Jordan quit basketball and went to play minor league baseball. Jordan built his legacy and fame in basketball so much that you literally had tens of thousands of people following him around just to watch him strike out in Birmingham, Alabama. That’s what happened with these cars – you take away the gullwing doors and it’s just another Mercedes roadster, just like Jordan was just another minor league baseball player. But it’s the past reputation, along with how great a driver’s car they were in the first place, that kept these models in demand and values on par with the original. Go check out values for a 300SL Roadster, they are usually in the $1,000,000 to $1,400,000 range, right where the gullwing cars are. The same is happening with the SLS, with the Roadster prices side by side with comparable Gullwing cars. Logic would say the whole point of this car was the doors and it would carry a premium over the Roadster, but I think that would be true if Mercedes-Benz mailed it in on the rest of the car — which they clearly didn’t.
CLICK FOR DETAILS:Â 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster on eBay
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A few weeks back I was sitting outside enjoying a beverage and some fantastic fall weather when a Z8 drove by. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I will readily admit that I wasn’t a fan of the Z8’s styling when it debuted. I’m not sure exactly why, but it’s purposeful blending of vintage and modern didn’t appeal to me in my early 20s. But it’s aged incredibly well, i.e. not at all, and as I’ve aged I have now come to appreciate these machines much more. I’m fortunate enough to live in the vicinity of a Silver one and while I don’t see it frequently I do cross its path from time to time. And I’m glad I do. With around 2,500 sold in the States you’re not likely to see one often and as with most limited-production cars prices are high, but there’s really a lot to love about these BMWs. The performance ain’t too shabby either.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 BMW Z8 on eBay
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If you’ll pardon the strange introduction, this is not the car I was originally going to feature. I was going to feature one of my favorite color combinations on any Porsche (though we typically only see it on the 356): Slate Grey over a Red interior. That listing was removed so it was time to find something else. But it made me search for another Roadster and while this one isn’t quite as awesome of a combination, damn does it look good. Here we have a restored Ivory 1961 Porsche 356B 1600 Roadster again with a Red interior. These colors possess a pretty stark contrast with one another, but work quite well. And there are so many little hand wrought details on these cars that we can pore over for hours. When such details find themselves on the lines of the 356 Roadster then the appeal jumps up all the more. The Roadster was Porsche’s replacement for the Convertible D, which in turn had replaced the Speedster as the pared down version of the 356 Cabriolet. The Speedster it seems was a little too spartan, especially with regard to the windshield, so the Convertible D and Roadster added a little back to the car. Though by modern standards any 356 still remains very spartan.