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Mercedes SL Goes to a Dark Place, You Ain't Seen Nothing Until You've Seen the Interior

Mercedes-Benz SL 7 photos
Photo: Reddit | mofuq
Mercedes-Benz SLMercedes-Benz SLMercedes-Benz SLMercedes-Benz SLMercedes-Benz SLMercedes-Benz SL
With its SLR McLaren-inspired styling, the R230 generation Mercedes-Benz SL was the epiphany of the series to some enthusiasts. It has aged like a fine wine, looking better than its two successors, including the modern-day one signed by AMG, albeit the same cannot be said about the pictured copy.
It lives in a very dark place, with that ‘custom’ paint job, unless it’s a wrap. Red is the dominating color on the outside, and it is mixed with several black elements meant to resemble flames up to a point. It has way too much chrome trim for its own good, a scoop on the hood that doesn’t do justice to its elegant nature, and additional logos, including one that seems to be the Bentley badge above the three-pointed star emblem.

It's a lot to digest, but if you look on the lower part of the front bumper, you will see additional lights that look like they were mounted by a child. Smoking the headlamps was a must, alongside giving it a few attachments like the apron, side skirts, and huge rear wing. There is even more chrome at the rear, and the American flag proudly decorates the windscreen, right above the trunk lid.

This car is apparently for sale, and it is said to rock a V8 under the hood. This would make the ‘SL 500’ logo legit, as in this configuration, the model came with a 5.0-liter V8, making a little over 300 horsepower. The facelift brought a 5.5-liter V8 to the SL 500, with nearly 390 hp on tap for faster takeoffs.

Even though it’s controversial, and some of the chrome trim appears to have been added with both eyes closed, the exterior is somewhat digestible to the right person. However, it all pales when comparing it to the cabin, which is definitely on the OTT side. To put it this way, your grandma’s couch looks far more appealing than the seats of this once-great open-top GT.

The owner did all sorts of crazy stuff to the cockpit of the car, re-wrapping pretty much every touchable part in new materials. They even went as far as applying new logos to the glovebox, and ‘decorating’ the entire dashboard panel with various other things. Hopefully, the original upholstery and trim are in pristine condition beneath all that crazy stuff.

Images of this Mercedes-Benz SL were shared on Reddit, in their infamous ‘bad’ car mods thread, and some Redditors said that they’ve seen ads of it online a few months ago in Dallas, Texas. Thus, if you know more about it, like the asking price for instance, then feel free to share it with us in the comments area down below. Now head on up and take a closer look at it in the image gallery.
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About the author: Cristian Gnaticov
Cristian Gnaticov profile photo

After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s.
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