1978 Mercedes 450 SL Gets First Wash in Two Decades: Store, Restore, or Drive As Is?

Born in 1971, the SL line endured until 1989 without significant changes in styling but with several turning points in motoring technology. Initially, the model was exclusively dedicated to the North American market. Some of the more life-experienced readers will recall the Dallas TV series and the famous red Mercedes SL driven by the youngest of the Ewing brothers, Bobby.

The car was about as un-Texan as it got: small, red, good-looking, economical, performant, rebellious – just like the character that drove it. It contradicted every single paragraph in the ‘What a Car is Today’ book of 1970s Detroit, including the darn crash bumpers. At least on the screen - things were a little different in real life.

A few months after the first episode of the legendary TV series aired in April 1978, a Mercedes 450 SL landed in America. Its history is not essential because it has been collecting dust for the last two decades. Luckily, that’s about the only thing that stuck to it, having been stored in a garage, so under that thick crust of dirt, the 450 SL is relatively intact.

Naturally, this job requires pressure washing, chemical cleaning products, elbow grease, talent, patience, passion, and dedication – especially with a car as good-looking as this Merc. Well, when I say ‘good looking,’ I mean the original German design, not the federally mandated safety features that forced Mercedes to attach some pontoons at the front and rear. The United States motor-harassing agencies preferred the term ‘bumpers,’ but look at them.

The car got into the hands of the detailing band of YouTubers from WD Detailing, which is good. Also, the rear hump of low-speed impact-deterring metal piece is not on the car, but in it. Not in a metal crumpling way, but literally disassembled and stored in the cabin (barely). The other one, the front bumper, is still in its place – and boy, is it one ugly piece of bureaucratic nonsense!

The initial style of the SL was elegant, subtle, delicate, well-proportioned, and discrete. Enter American standards: slam an eight-inch (203-mm) slab of metal at each and call it a safe day. ‘Dallas’ could only do so much for the name and image of the Mercedes-Benz convertible coupe, but the fact was that the ugliness was hard to get over.

Unless you owned one, case in which you didn’t care what the car looked like from the outside because you were inside, enjoying the ride. In this particular car, an open-air drive must have been quite the treat back in the late seventies.

The video below briefly shows the car’s mileage (125,819, or 202,442 km) – but leaves all other details about its past in the shadow; nonetheless, the folding ragtop still looks impeccable. The rest of the automobile is not too shabby; it is a testament to the hailed Mercedes-Benz legendary craftsmanship (back when the German carmaker made very high-quality cars engineered to strict and very high standards).

Spared from a yard retirement or abandonment, like many other iconic classic automobiles from a time long gone, this Merc 450 SL comes back to a sparkling tenure after a thorough cleansing session. Unfortunately, the engine remains mute since the YouTubers don’t have the key, but look at how clean that motor is.

Partly because most of the pieces found under the hood are aluminum – including the block. The 4.5-liter eight-cylinder sports a mechanical fuel injection system – introduced in 1976 on the model. The Bosch K-Jetronic used a swash drive pump to fuel the engine – the Continuous Injection System – and a gasoline distributor at the back of the engine, with a separate line for each of the eight injectors.

With this mechanical complication, the 450 SL boasted 217 net hp and 265 lb-ft (268 PS, 360 Nm), which allowed it to reach a top speed of 130 mph (210 kph) and accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 9.3 seconds. By Malaise charts, it was a neck-snapping roadster with a console-shifted three-speed automatic and a 3.07 rear.

Mercedes under the hood, Mercedes in the cabin: The open-top SL came with classy options like automatic climate control, genuine wood inserts (which this car has), or cruise control. The 450 SL was the most popular in the SL family, selling 66,298 examples between July 1971 and November 1980. That’s over one-quarter of the total model production of 237,287 units from its introduction in 1971 to the end of the series in 1989.

One final note about the Dallas reference regarding the 450 SL: the TV show (which ran from 1978 to 1991) extensively displayed the Signal Red ‘Ewing 4’ Mercedes-Benz 450 SL. While that alone isn’t much, the fact that the series was one of the most-watched programs in the US when it aired should say something about the car’s stardom status. To clarify, one episode of Dallas is still the second-most watched TV broadcast in the United States. More than 90 million viewers tuned in on November 21, 1980, to watch the cliffhanger.