Development of the R 129 took a long time due to the scrupulous attention given to each individual detail feature. Its history officially began in the early eighties and so it had "time to mature" as one of its creator put it. The Mercedes-Benz designers and engineers invested a lot of time in the fine-tuning of the car's features, thereby succeeding in not just satisfying but by far exceeding the high expectations of customers and interested parties all over the world. In the course of the decades, the SL face had conquered a firm place in the Mercedes-Benz model hierarchy. The new SL demonstrated a stylistically new interpretation of the traditional radiator grill: within the radiator mask organically integrated in the engine hood, the Mercedes star was complemented by horizontal louvers made of anodized aluminum. Less than a year after its launch, the SL received the much-coveted international Car Design Award presented by a jury of eleven journalists from ten countries plus representatives of the city of Turin and the Piedmont region.
The exemplary solutions included, among other things, the draught-stop, an ingenious combination of tubing and netting that prevented turbulence behind the windshield without interfering with the 'climate' inside the passenger compartment. Leather jackets and caps were therefore just as much a thing of the past as ladies getting wind-blown. Even high speeds no longer presented a draughty problem, and open-top driving at low temperatures proved to be an effective road show. Today the innovative draught-stop - in which its inventors hold four patents - is a matter-of-course element of many cabriolets anywhere in the world. The car also set new standards in the field of safety. A precondition for perfect functioning of the fully automatic soft-top was the torsional rigidity of the bodywork - and it left nothing to be desired in this respect, either. It did not have to fear comparison with the sedans and became the generally valid yardstick for open-top car rigidity throughout the industry. The open-top car was subjected to the demanding Mercedes-Benz front and rear impact tests - and the results were sensational, verifying the development engineers' scrupulous work.
Another element of the safety concept was the rollover bar, which was automatically raised from its virtually invisible rest position in the event of a threatening rollover at lightning speed. The potential of this innovative feature and the entire safety package was demonstrated in dramatic form during the trial-driving launch for journalists. Driver and passenger were a bit rattled after their accident but otherwise unscathed. Ground-breaking features in interior design were the SL's integral seats, representing an engineering masterpiece in their setup and forming a crucial element of the safety concept. The seat frame and backrest were made of different, specifically matched thin-wall magnesium alloy castings. Three-point seat belts, automatically height-adjusting head restraints and the servomotors for longitudinal, height and angle adjustment of seat squab and backrest were all fitted on or inside the seat. Another important element was the automatic locking of the backrest. The seat's load-bearing capacity in a crash amounted to several times the maximum possible forces. The seat incorporated 20 patents for detail features; in appreciation of his pioneering work, its creator received the 1989 Paul Pietsch Award which comes with a respectable prize amount. The suspension was equally all new.
At the front, the wheels were located by a damper strut axle with coil springs, anti-dive control and dual wishbones, gas-pressure shock absorbers and an anti-roll bar. The car was also the first SL with a modified multi-link independent rear suspension with anti-squat and anti-lift control, coil springs, gas-pressure shock absorbers and an anti-roll bar. The brakes convinced even hard-baked test drivers who put the SL to the acid test on the Passo dello Stelvio. The car was decelerated by four-piston fixed-caliper disc brakes on the front axle and twin-piston fixed-caliper disc brakes on the rear axle. The brake discs were internally ventilated both front and rear and ABS was as much fitted as a matter of course as a dual-circuit brake system. The entry-level model into the new SL world was the 300 SL with two-valve six-cylinder engine which developed 190 hp/140 kW; it was followed by the 300 SL-24 with four-valve 231 hp/170 kW engine.
The next to follow were V6 engines with three-valve technology and dual ignition: a 2.8 liter with 204 hp/150 kW and a 3.2 liter with 224 hp/165 kW. The flagship was initially the 500 SL whose four-valve V8 developed 326 hp/240 kW. Following the revision of model designations, the 500 SL was renamed SL 500 in June 1993 - a designation principle applied to all Mercedes-Benz models. With the SL 600 - designated SL 600 from June 1993 - people acquired an output of 394 hp/290 kW and acceleration from standstill to 100 km/h in 6.1 seconds. Its "little" eight-cylinder brother took 6.5 second and they both effortlessly reached a top speed of 250 kilometers per hour - or would have reached even more had their top speed not been electronically limited. Those demanding even greater performance and prestige from the eight- and twelve-cylinder models were able to turn to the brand's sports branch, Messrs. AMG in Affalterbach near Stuttgart, in which DaimlerChrysler has held a 51 percent stake since January 1, 1999 when it was re-named Mercedes-AMG GmbH. Top-of-the-pops was the SL 73 AMG, whose 7.3 liter V12 produced 525 hp/ 386 kW and catapulted the car to 100 km/h in just 4.8 seconds. Without speed limiter, the car was capable of doing 300 kilometers per hour. The powertrain of the AMG models was matched to the higher loads in all its components, from automatic transmission to rear axle. The AMG styling package, including fog lamps integrated in the front bumper, emphasized the dynamic appeal of the roadster without interfering with its clean lines.
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