My personal project car

[stickandrudderman]

some of you will know that my own project car is the rarest of all 113; a RHD 5 speed 250.
Here’s a little taster of progress.
https://youtube.com/shorts/2VOyrqWBPgU?si=1PR2IRcne9mw34JX

[JamesL]

Hopefully you have before (and after) shots coming

[zak]

Fabulous work. You could eat off the bottom ! if it weren't upside down.
An early or late 250 SL , may I ask ?

jz

[WhiteBlue]

Fantastic work well done

[AdelaidePagoda]

Looks new out of the factory! How long have you been working on it, and when is it due to be completed?

[stickandrudderman]

Sadly, it's a late 250 so lacking the earlier details. During the restoration i did consider converting it to early spec but decided against it. The only deviation I've made from original spec is to change the tex for leather and fit a 1 key lock set.
i bought the car 12 years ago as a running driving car and immediately stripped it. Since it's my personal project I haven't been able to devote as much time to it as I'd like but I think 2025 will see her finished.

[mdsalemi]

What I see looks beautiful. I am sure they finished car will be even more so.

Exactly how rare is it?

[stickandrudderman]

Thanks Michael,
Since it is known that there were only about 1000 5 speeds produced worldwide across four years of production we must deduce that probably 20% of those were RHD. Late 250s were only made for one year let's assume a split 75% 280 against 25% 250 which gives around 60 cars. So likelyhood is that only around 60 RHD 250SL 5 speeds were made. The number surviving is probably less than half that.

[johnk]

I like how you finished the bottom in the original underbody colors rather than painting everything the body color. Not many people take the extra time to do that. 

[mdsalemi]

Thanks Michael,
Since it is known that there were only about 1000 5 speeds produced worldwide across four years of production we must deduce that probably 20% of those were RHD. Late 250s were only made for one year let's assume a split 75% 280 against 25% 250 which gives around 60 cars. So likelyhood is that only around 60 RHD 250SL 5 speeds were made. The number surviving is probably less than half that.

Indeed a very rare car! And a good find...
Not too many places back in the day where one could use that overdrive 5th gear in the UK...but now you have some good motorways!

[Jack the Knife]

The 250 really is the car. And yours will really be the car.

[Harry]

Very, very nice!  I know that you are thrilled just to be around it!

[SEB]

some of you will know that my own project car is the rarest of all 113; a RHD 5 speed 250.

In general, it seems that the 250SL is so rare that when asking Chat GPT what he knows about the W113,  the AI only mentioned the 230SL and 280SL in his first answer. Below is a link to the report from this conversation on German Pagoda Forum. Unfortunately, it's in German.

https://www.pagodentreff.de/diskussionsforum/threads/unterhaltung-mit-chatgpt.19661/#post-145762