[ Life Cycle ]
In the same family for more than four decades, this Mercedes-Benz 280SL has travelled the UK, been school run transport, and is now enjoying retirement as the grand tourer it was designed to be
Words CHRIS WOOD Photography JONATHAN JACOB
In the Kettle family for 40 years, this Mercedes has witnessed the growing up of three daughters
1971 – Mercedes R107 bewitches Chris Kettle
‘It was October half-term 1971, and aged 15, I went to Earls Court Motor Show,’ begins Chris Kettle, owner of this 1985 Mercedes-Benz 280SL. ‘This was the launch year of the R107 and when I saw the car on the stand, I thought it was perfect – a fixed-head coupé and convertible all in one. It struck me as the ideal touring car, and I thought about driving across the continent with a girl one day…
‘By 1977 I was working in the oil industry in Kuwait. I bought a 1969 W113 “Pagoda” 280SL manual in red, because I had always liked the colour. The car was a bit tired internally but in good order mechanically with lots of mid-range torque. I joined the Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club (ADMC) that ran great social events, and I had lots of fun. I regrettably sold the W113 when I left the country.’
Following some time in Bahrain, Chris met Liz and they married in 1981; by 1983 they were both working in Dubai. Chris’ thoughts of owning an R107 resurfaced and he felt this could be the time to buy his dream car. ‘I thought about a BMW 635CSi and briefly a Ferrari 308GTB but really needed no further excuses to go and buy a R107. Early in 1983 I approached the local Mercedes-Benz agent and distributor, Gargash Enterprises, to enquire about buying a right-hand-drive R107.’
Owner Chris (right) still admires SL’s quality feel
1984 – Chris buys his 280SL
1984 After more than a year’s wait, Chris finally orders his SL
Chris was disappointed to be told there were no allocations of the car available for delivery in that year, or the following one. ‘I was told to “Come back and see us in late 1984 to see what might be possible,”’ he says. ‘I was gutted, but could I hold my resolve? Should I really take that BMW 635CSi instead?’ Chris decided to hold firm, because he wanted his 1971 dream car, complete with body-coloured wheels. ‘I held my nerve and, in November 1984, I received a draft offer to buy a Mercedes-Benz 280SL. Later that same month I was given a delivery date of the end of July 1985.’
1985 Chris chose to collect his SL from the factory in Sindelfingen
‘As the delivery date came closer, I paid the deposit in Dubai. I had decided that I would collect the car from the Mercedes-Benz factory, because I wanted the factory stamp in the maintenance booklet. I booked a flight to Frankfurt, and almost immediately, I received a call from the dealership offering me a newer facelifted model that would be available on 1 August 1985.
‘A 300SL with alloy wheels and a catalytic convertor could really be mine – but with a 15 percent premium! I really did want the matching body-coloured hubcaps for the wheels, though, and I wasn’t keen on the possible reduced performance with a catalyst, so there wasn’t a lot of hesitation in declining the offer!’ Chris explains.
1985 Tynemouth seafront, still on German plates
Chris arrived at the Sindelfingen plant just outside Stuttgart in on 31 July 1985 and was given a comprehensive tour of the factory. ‘I can remember being struck by just how much hand-building was involved in the production of a Mercedes R107. The final stage of the build process was the fitting of the body-coloured hard-top to any convertible SL – this was also adjusted by hand. Perhaps surprisingly, the last six digits of the VIN number are stamped on the underside of the hard-top – it’s an easy way to check if the original is still with the car.
1986 SL settles into regular use
1986 Chris’ wife Liz and her sister enjoy a trip to Swaledale
‘After payment of the balance – the total cost was then equivalent to around £15,000 – the predelivery inspection page of the maintenance booklet was stamped “Sindelfingen 31 Jul 85” and my new Signal Red SL was given distinctive oval German export plates with the registration 895-Z-4399. I drove back to the UK via Reims and caught a flight from the French coast across the Channel on a Hoverspeed SRN4 hovercraft.’
Happily, Chris had some time off work in August and enjoyed driving his new SL around the UK, seeing family and friends. ‘I visited my parents in Tynemouth and there are photos of the SL parked on the seafront there, with the German export plates. Sadly, my father was to die in November that year, but he did get several rides in the SL and gave it his seal of approval, even though it wasn’t a Jaguar! Summers in Tynemouth drew many people to the coast and there were many admiring comments about the car. After that, Liz and I toured the UK in the SL whenever we could.’
Engine has only needed regular servicing and one new water pump
Once the car had been in the UK for a year, new car tax of around £1500 and VAT of £2500 had to be paid, although Chris had still saved money by buying the car in Germany. Now identified as B218 RPY, the car’s registration date was recorded as 31 July 1985. ‘I received two receipts when I bought the car, and the VIN and engine number were incorrectly noted on one of them. Unfortunately, it was this receipt that had been used by Customs and Excise and the Department of Transport to produce the car’s V5 logbook. The error was unnoticed at the time but came back to bite me later!’
Chris continued to work in Dubai and used the car when he returned on leave to the UK. In 1989 he decided to go back to university to complete an Engineering Master’s Degree. The Masters course was delivered at both Northumbria and Aberdeen universities, so the SL became Chris’ daily driver.
Lifting frame now eases solo hardtop removal
‘I then began working for Shell in the Netherlands, and after a few weeks, Liz joined me with Kate, our one-year-old daughter and Jen, who was then a baby,’ Chris explains. ‘I then decided to export the SL. The Dutch authorities wanted to know why the vehicle VIN and logbook didn’t match. Impounding loomed but I was eventually able to convince them there had been a genuine administrative error, and the car was registered as DN-ZX-63. In some respects, it wasn’t the best idea to have the car in the Netherlands because the Dutch car tax at that time was based on weight. The SL weighed 1509kg, so went into one of the highest tax brackets,’ Chris recalls.
During the early Nineties, the SL performed the same daily driver role in the Netherlands as it did in the UK. In 1993, Chris and Liz’s third daughter Eleanor was born, and Chris discovered that, happily, Nineties children’s car seats will fit into both the front and rear of an Eighties 280SL. ‘The girls loved going in the car with the roof down – I could drop the older two off at school on sunnier days on my way to work,’ he remembers.
‘I was working within the gas fields in the northern area of the Netherlands. Driving a convertible around Friesland, Drenthe and the Ijsselmeer in the summer was glorious, and I was reminded daily why I had wanted this car so much. It was practical too with a good-sized boot, so my hard hat, coveralls, boots and safety gear were easily stowed. Business trips to manufacturing facilities in northern France tended to be during the less clement months of the year, and driving across Northern Europe with the hard-top on also made me appreciate the flexibility of my choice – the SL was comfortable, fast and quiet.
1992 SL acquires a Dutch nationality
1992 Daughter Kate clearly enjoyed riding in the SL
‘There is a certain amount of “fun” to be had with the hardtop. Removing and replacing it for summer and winter is simple but its weight, at just over 40kg, makes the exercise potentially fraught for a husband-and-wife team where one is tall and the other short. However, this has been completed without damage to car, couple or marriage over the years, and I now have a lifting frame and hoist which lets me handle the hardtop singlehandedly,’ Chris says.
Now Chris and it are retired, SL lives life at a gentler pace
More than 100,000 miles, but would you know it?
Another work move to Oman in 1996 meant that Chris’ SL returned to the UK to be re-registered under its original mark. ‘I mentioned the VIN and engine number error but was told at the local vehicle registration office that correcting this would take some time. Given we were due to depart for Oman, the matter had to be left, and the car registered under the incorrect VIN. This was not resolved until 2023 when, retired and with the necessary time, I finally then managed to receive a corrected V5,’ Chris explains.
Working in the Middle East for the next eight years meant the SL was parked in garages and used when Chris had annual leave. It often covered 2000 miles in the six weeks when he and the family were in the UK, but Chris always kept the MoTs up to date.
Chris is yet to use the spare ‘Mexican Hat’ alloy wheels
ADMC badge first seen on Chris’ Pagoda
During the family’s trips to the UK, the seating arrangement of the three girls in the back of the SL was well established – Kate, the eldest, sat behind Liz on the nearside who moved the seat as far forward as possible; Jen sat behind Chris who pulled his seat further forward than was comfortable to give her room to place her feet; and youngest daughter El sat over the transmission tunnel, with a foot in each rear foot well or propped between the front seats. ‘Given we only used the car for the few weeks we were home in England, there never seemed to be a justification to buy something else,’ Chris says.
However, in the summer of 2002 the girls were asked to be bridesmaids for their cousin's wedding, requiring dress fittings in South Wales, a drive of five hours each way. By now Kate was 12, Jen 11 and El 9, and were all too big to fit in the back of the SL. Chris recalls their ‘reasonable’ plea for a more accommodating car after that trip, and their grandmother’s Toyota Corolla was duly bought.
‘My daughters loved going in the Mercedes with the roof down on the way to school’
2009 Daughter Jen’s final school days; shoes to match SL!
In 2004, the Kettle family was back living in the Netherlands, this time in Amsterdam. ‘Given the difficulty of having a car in the city, I didn’t take the SL, we simply used the Corolla,’ says Chris. ‘Over the next five years the SL got less than 2000 miles of use, because our trips to the UK were short but frequent, and we just used the Toyota.’
The infamous R107 leaking bulkhead issue had made itself known by 2009, evidenced by a little dampness discovered in the driver’s foot well. On each side of the bulkhead, a pipe drains rainwater from the top of the scuttle panel, exiting through the sill behind the front jacking points. The tube becomes blocked, the rust begins from the underside and can work its way through the bulkhead, often well-hidden until a late stage. Fortunately, Chris caught the problem early and the subsequent Mercedes-Benz dealer repair has lasted well.
Multiple personalities show how travelled this Mercedes is
Five years later, Chris was considering what to do with the car longer term. ‘Retirement from Shell was likely within the next five years, and the question was whether I was going to keep the Mercedes through retirement, because if I did, a little tidying up would be required. I decided in favour of keeping the car, so it went for an inspection and for a scope of work to be drawn up,’ Chris says.
This inspection showed no corrosion in either the bulkhead or sills, so the servicing team undersealed the bodywork, replaced the driveshaft couplings, engine mounts, brake discs and pads, rebuilt the differential and fitted an aftermarket air conditioning system. ‘This had been offered as an option when I bought the car, but I foolishly didn’t select it,’ Chris explains. Although the original Signal Red paint was looking a little faded on the boot lid, Chris decided to give the car a full respray.
2024 Touring the Auvergne in France
‘Inside, some work was needed, too. When specifying the car new I’d selected the MB-Tex vinyl interior material, instead of leather or fabric. It was the seat and interior trim for almost every taxi I had sat in from Cairo to Tehran, and these cars lasted hundreds of thousands of miles. Even up to today, only one thing inside the SL has needed replacement, testament to the original quality of the materials. New piping on the back of the driver’s seat was required because Jen had deconstructed the covering from its piping as a young, bored, back seat passenger!’ Chris laughs.
Up until 2019 – the time of Chris’ retirement and the passing of the 100,000-mile mark – servicing had taken place at Mercedes-Benz dealerships. Why the change? Chris had presented the car to a main dealer and was told it didn’t have a record of the procedures required for the R107 anymore. ‘The service manager told me the service manuals relating to the cars had been thrown out. It was then I knew I needed to have the car looked after elsewhere,’ Chris says. It’s now maintained by Neville Wright of Diamond Garage, West Auckland. ‘Neville has over four decades of experience with Mercedes cars and is a concours judge and member of the Mercedes-Benz Club.’
2025 Brittany – perfect weather for a convertible SL
Every year Chris fastidiously checks the condition on his SL. ‘The winter of 2022-2023 saw a full bodywork inspection, with sills examined internally and externally, and repainted,’ he reports. Between 2022 and 2024, the bumpers were refurbished: the structural stiffeners were in reasonable condition so were media-blasted and powdercoated; the chrome components, with one exception, were cleaned and internally coated with epoxy primer. The rear offside chrome section was also corroded, so was replaced with an original Mercedes-Benz part. Winter 2024-2025 saw the reflectors in the headlamps re-finished following the original vacuum vapour aluminium deposition process used by Bosch. ‘I try to keep the car as original as possible,’ says Chris. ‘With the headlamp reflectors, new seals and fixings have made them as good as they were in 1985 or even better, because I had the H4 halogen bulb upgrade.’
‘My father enjoyed several rides in the SL and gave it his seal of approval’
During his four decades of ownership, Chris and Liz have joined various clubs and enjoyed tours to the Auvergne and Brittany in France, as well as Northumberland and Yorkshire. ‘The huge luggage space means it really is only the proverbial kitchen sink that is left behind,’ Chris explains. ‘And even now, I also continue to learn more about R107s, including the fact that the boot lid is balanced to stay open, without the need for supporting struts, at any angle.’
2022 SL needs remedial work
The quality build of the R107 is held up by the fact that Chris’ SL has continued to be wonderfully reliable. ‘The large, heavy doors still close with a satisfying clunk, and while it can be tricky to open the doors in modern car parks, I try to park at the end of a row so we can get out easily, if not the most elegantly’, Chis says. ‘The SL still accelerates smartly and will drive all day at a steady 70mph without turning a hair. It remains a very smooth, comfortable and elegant way to travel. We often find ourselves talking to people about the car at various stops – it’s those body-coloured wheels that catch the eye of observers as well as the elegant styling.’
This year, the plan is to have the car registered as a historic vehicle with the DVLA, and Chris believes the SL will have more adventures with the Kettles for some time to come. ‘It will stay in the family because our eldest daughter, Kate, has said she would like to have it, but she’ll not be getting it any time soon!’
Despite its advancing years this SL remains a reliable friend
Know your classic’s previous owners?
Let us know at classic.cars@bauermedia.co.uk and it might make for one of our features
Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get instant digital access and so much more. PLUS FREE UK delivery.