Customer Reviews

Mercedes Benz SL (Sports Car Color History)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Good book for SL lovers. Many color photographs with few black and white. It starts from 1952, and includes the fabulous '54 gullwings, and continues to the newest and smaller SLK. Great text on the changes of each model year including the thoughts of people who actually designed and built these automobiles. Definitely a book for those who appreciate automobiles "engineered like no other car in the world."

Excellent detailed photos of the entire SL line except for the 380SL. No 380SL photos and only brief mention in the text. The pagoda models are covered thoroughly with excellent photos. This would make a good companion book to one with more technical depth but light on illustrations. A great book as a low-cost holiday gift for an SL owner.

(I'll admit to being biased - I'm the owner of the Signal Red 280 SL on the cover and on pages 77 thru 81. My favorite is the photo spanning pages 78-79.)

This book is 88% the pre 1990 body style SLs. If you are looking for a late model SL and need a guide to help look elsewhere. Good if you are looking to buy an older model.

The pressman let us down... Half of the photos in the book are too blue. I would expect a color history to have GOOD color. The other half of the pages are the over-saturated lack of contrast that comes from economy printing processes but at least the color balance on them is good. The history part of the book is good. As an owner of a 280SL, I was disappointed in the quality of the printing, but not the content...

For the price of this book, it is an excellent value. Lots of information thru-out the years of the 300SL. However, not much description about the changes from year to year.

I bought this book to complete a collection of Mercedes SL books. I read th e reviews of it and bought it as a result. I have found it to be one of the less valuable SL books with mediocre photography, a fair amount of mis-information and lacking some real writing on the experience of owning these cars. Each has a terrific history and there really isn't that much on their development history. I write for an automotive magazine and hate inaccuracies in facts about automobiles such as saying that the R107 cars had a leather dash. They never did. In addition, many of the cars used as picture cars are equipped with aftermarket wheels and accessories. That also does not to me make it a true color History. If it were the cars would be as they came from the factory. There are enough of these cars out there to find picture cars that are in stock condition.
On a plus side there are some nice driving impressions that point out how the different series roadsters compare to each other.
While it is not the weakest Mercedes SL book, my advice is if you really want it find a inexpensive used copy. If you want a super Mercedes SL book buy a copy of Mercedes SL Series: The Complete Story (Crowood Autoclassic) It is possibly the best book on these cars out there.