Early 230SL-RM Sotheby’s Munich

[mdsalemi]

https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mu23/munich/lots/r0017-1963-mercedes-benz-230-sl-pagoda/1388441

[Jordan]

Thanks for sharing Michael.  Love the colour combination.  That has to be the very first automatic built.

[Charles 230SL]

Body, chassis, and engine numbers show it originally having a manual transmission..

[Jordan]

interesting, chassis # shows it originally having a manual transmission (113042-10-00012)

Yes Charles, I missed that.  Too bad they swapped in the automatic.

[mdsalemi]

If someone were to offer me “€260,000 - €340,000” for mine I’d paint it any &$”@ color combo they’d want, and personally deliver it to Munich. Just saying…

[Jonny B]

A rather interesting car. Check out the rear seat setup. Grundig radio. The antenna mount on the hardtop?? Automatic badge on the trunk?

The color combination is "interesting" hard to tell from the photos, but the interior appears to be turquoise? The paint codes shown in one of the photos reads a 574/040. 040 is easy that's black. The 574, well not so much. I could not find a reference to that color in the early color books I have. The paint codes beginning with "5" are usually in the reds. I found 573 as a dark bordeaux red.

[badali]

Car number 00009 or not that car has a lot of ugly to knock off.  If that is worth 300K then mine is worth more...

[Alex D]

Yes, interior is turquoise, just like mine except it’s pretty beat up, embarrassing to the least.

[lreppond]

A rather interesting car. Check out the rear seat setup. Grundig radio. The antenna mount on the hardtop?? Automatic badge on the trunk?

The color combination is "interesting" hard to tell from the photos, but the interior appears to be turquoise? The paint codes shown in one of the photos reads a 574/040. 040 is easy that's black. The 574, well not so much. I could not find a reference to that color in the early color books I have. The paint codes beginning with "5" are usually in the reds. I found 573 as a dark bordeaux red.

I find the entire configuration of this car unusual!  I’m wondering if this first run of pagodas had some kinks that were worked out in later production.  The dash is painted black (including around the air vents) which was not body color.  That metallic orange with turquoise is a wacky color combo but not entirely uncharacteristic of the early 1960’s.  And how on earth could that rear “seat” be used?   I’d really love to see the data card for this car.   

[mclewis]

There are a lot of curious anomalies with this car, including two screws in the face of the dash. In leather/tex on the soft top cover, usually would match the rest of the interior, looks brown.

[johnk]

I am at a loss how they could price that ugly and poorly kept car up that high?

[rwmastel]

The paint codes shown in one of the photos reads a 574/040. 040 is easy that's black. The 574, well not so much.

The dash is painted black (including around the air vents) which was not body color.

Originally black car?

Also, brown(?) leather/tex on soft top lid.

[rwmastel]

The 574, well not so much. I could not find a reference to that color in the early color books I have. The paint codes beginning with "5" are usually in the reds. I found 573 as a dark bordeaux red.

Jonny,  did you look in our forums?
https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=22599.0

Also, Google says Spinal Red, but apparently that's a newer color.

[Jordan]

And a Grundig radio?  Wonder if a dealer or maybe MB just popped that in because it fit?

[Jonny B]

I did find the more current reference to spinell (SP) red. My bad for not pushing a bit further into the site data.

In reading through the strings, the one (mostly) plausible reference was that 574 represented a special order code.

Still, why in heaven's name would you paint a car orange with a turquoise interior??

[UJJ]

And no picture of Soft-top!!

[mdsalemi]

Still, why in heaven's name would you paint a car orange with a turquoise interior??

Dunno. But at Dan Caron's Meeting of the Clans in 2006, The Canadian songwriter (and brother of comedian Dave Thomas) Ian Thomas showed up from Toronto in a Pagoda that was some electric lime green metallic as I recall.  https://ianthomas.ca/about/

[zoegrlh]

Boy if they get that kind of Euros for that SL, then they can sell mine. Looks like the German market is seeking these Pagodas.

[johnk]

I emailed Sotheby’s  to find out what was special about the car to make it fives times the value of much better pagoda’s. We will sew if they respond.

[BobH]

There have been a few discussions about these orange cars on here, apparently the car released at the Geneva show in 1963 was orange and black, and if you look closely it also seems to have a black dash, although unfortunately the video is only black and white, so hard to tell what colour interior it has

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Pathe+geneva+motor+show+1963&&view=detail&mid=E5ADDD2A3E1CB40341CEE5ADDD2A3E1CB40341CE&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DPathe%2Bgeneva%2Bmotor%2Bshow%2B1963%26FORM%3DHDRSC6

I've seen a post where Achim knows this car and it's history and past owner

They'll probably be a collector who is willing to pay a premium for a car with this history, especially as it's being marketed by Sotheby's

[zoegrlh]

Most likely a museum will pick it up, and as said for the history of the car.

[Benz Dr.]

Look closely at the fire wall. See any problems there?

[rwmastel]

It's a newer style pebble texture pad, and I don't see the rubber hood protector strip things on the ridge.

[Benz Dr.]

It's a newer style pebble texture pad, and I don't see the rubber hood protector strip things on the ridge.

Keep looking.  It's both hidden and obvious at the same time.

[John Betsch - "SADIE"]

Body paint color near the brake booster looks to be red, not orange