Friday, April 10, 2026

1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SL


I'm totally spitballing on the year here. The R107 version of the Mercedes-Benz SL class was produced with only minimal cosmetic changes for almost two decades, from 1971 to 1989. The fact that this one's a 450SL, plus the color and the bumpers, narrows it down to the '74-'79 model year range.

Something like two thirds of all SL-class production went to the US market, and the 450SL version itself was a response to changing demands due to US regs. The 3.5L M116 Benz V-8, with its 9.5:1 compression ratio, wouldn't make it past American emissions standards and so, to make up for the lower 8.0:1 compression ratios necessitated by the unleaded gas used on this side of the pond, it was punched out to 4.5L.

For the 1974 model year the SOHC M117 V-8 put out 190 SAE net horsepower, although that number would slump as the Malaise Era deepened, reaching a nadir of 165.


Road & Track put a '74 450SL through its testing procedures and recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 10.2 seconds, a quarter mile elapsed time of 17.7 seconds at 81.5 through the traps, and a top speed of 124mph. Price as tested was $16,748 gradually-inflating early Seventies dollars, which equals $111k in current money.

This one was photographed in September of 2021 using a Hasselblad Lunar and a Sony Zeiss 16-70mm f/4 OSS zoom lens.

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