‘I’ve always been fascinated by the SLK’
Danny gets sidetracked and fails to control himself
Danny Hopkins
You should never read books.
I made that mistake and ended up buying this. Brian Long’s very excellent Mercedes SLK tome was the culprit – it softened me up just enough to make me enquire about a dusty looking R170 that shared driveway space with the Mazda RX-8 project I was buying (I read the book about that as well!). Owner, Julius Hill, saw me glance sideways at the Ultramarine Blue two-seater and pounced: ‘That’s actually for sale as well.’
Now, any normal person would have said, ‘that’s nice’, and moved on… but thanks to Mr Long’s naughty book and my own predisposition to acquisition, I immediately entered into a detailed conversation about the car. It was surplus to requirements, had a dented door and saggy headlining along with a fault that was draining the battery. But, it was in reasonable condition considering it had been standing and, crucially, it came with a new headlining, and the history file was thick. Plus, I had always looked at Bruno Sacco’s little Bremen bombshell with a secret fascination. Mercedes tries to do MX-5… did they succeed? The production Slk-class was introduced at Turin in April 1996, two years before the tempting 230 that was winking at me on Julius’s drive. Mercedes wanted us to see it as a modern incarnation of the 190SL, with its four cylinders and identical 94-inch wheelbase. Plus it has a supercharger and I had never driven one. Two days later it was on a trailer and
I had emptied 500 further pounds from my account. What I had for my money was pretty good. No MOT, but an inspection revealed remarkably little rot and an engine that sounded sweet. It drove well too, and even the brakes were good having been completely rebuilt last year.
Then there was the ‘Vario’ roof, the SLK’S star turn. It was in perfect order. I pulled the little button for the required 30 seconds of whirring and clicking that takes the folding hardtop from ‘up’ to ‘down’ and the R170 did its little dance: windows down, bootlid open, roof detaches and folds itself back into the bootspace, boot closes and decking
descends – job done. This operation still attracts a crowd even today. It’s a magnificent engineering dance and my one worked well. I love it when exciting engineering becomes a fashion accessory. The SLK, within a couple of days, had secured itself in my affections. I had anticipated a service, a polish, a few trips and then a sale. But no, I was hypnotised by the bonnet bulges and the electric blueness of it all.
So it will live with me for a while as I make it perfect. The interior suffers from ‘plastic feel’ paint frailty – it has simply rubbed off in places. I’ll pull fuses to trace the battery drain, although I have a sneaky feeling the aftermarket stereo system is to blame (the speakers hiss even when the ignition is off). The rest of it seems to be in fine fettle, and before you ask, no, I don’t care about about the hairdresser jibes.
Right now I own an MGF, MX-5 and an SLK. Total outlay? Less than a grand for all three combined. Ownership enjoyment? Priceless – plus I enjoy working on them.
It’s all really, really good classic fun.
THE VERDICT
Fun to drive, full of fab engineering and very comfortable. The £500 SLK is looking like astoundingly good value.