Future classic? SL55 AMG

[IanF]

I’ve been looking at R230 SL55 AMGs and was wondering what the collective opinion about whether they will be future classics? They were the first car to put AMG on people’s radar and would give any similar gen supercars a run for their money cross-country back in the day.

They are aging well imho, with any of the, admittedly long, list of issues being resolved by now... plus supercharged V8...

I’m meant to be looking at 4 seaters, but m’eh!...

[mik]

Probably "yes".

Although to me they always looked as heavy as they are....

[IanF]

Probably "yes".

Although to me they always looked as heavy as they are....

Yeah, but 500bhp helps with that!..

[McSwede]

My FiL has an SL500 and it's a lovely thing. Soft and woofly and wafty so I cannot see why the SL55 can be anything other than a magnificent machine with better looks, better brakes/suspension and more poke. Good choice I'd say.

[scotta]

I drove my mates SLK55 back from Aberdeen when we picked it up. Its Epic. I liked it muchly. Negatives are slushbox paddle changes are sloooooow but left in sport to its own devices its fine. It will never be a track car - but youve got the Fezza to do that.

[Coaster1]

Love them.

If I didn’t like 911 so much, SL55 would have been a real alternative to my 996C2.

Autocar tested a de-restricted one back in the days and achieved 202mph.

And they sound like NASCAR.

[speedingfine]

Astronomical to run IIRC and not just because of the fuel economy
Plenty of horrors in here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/top ... 616119&p=1

Still love 'em though, one of our customers has one in the best spec, silver with turbine wheels

[Matty]

SL55's have ferocious running costs as Chris says. SLK55 is far cheaper alternative but lacks the "impact".

I drove my mates SLK55 back from Aberdeen when we picked it up. Its Epic. I liked it muchly. Negatives are slushbox paddle changes are sloooooow but left in sport to its own devices its fine. It will never be a track car - but youve got the Fezza to do that.

Gearbox does let it down. Rev-matching would go a long way to helping. It also needs an LSD and proper switchable TC. The R172 SLK55, despite lacking visual drama of any kind, largely fixes some of those issues and I reckon with a bit of fettling could be a right laugh.

[JonMad]

If my CLK55 was anything to go by, you learn to left foot brake and blip the throttle on paddle down changes.

[_andy]

Years ago when these were new a woman up the road was shagging some guy who had one, they must have had an argument in the early hours because I was violently awoken by him absolutely caning this thing down the road, I thought the Luftwaffe were back I could still hear it as he got on the motorway about a half mile away, sounded fucking great.

Someone in Bulgaria or Romania sells a manual gearbox conversion for them - that Tavarish guy on YouTube (the one with the twin turbo Gallardo) has a SL55 which he is in the process of converting.