Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see May lease deals!
Options
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
The car sits for approximately 6 months of the year and then is driven a limited amount during the other six months ... I am wondering if the fact that it sits in storage that long might have an effect on the rev's and the light etc?
Just a thought.
Scan Automotive, 1118 E3rd St. North Vancouver. Phone# 604-980-4542. Best of luck and if you ever cruise over to the island, let me know.
I will definitely drop you a line the next time we go for a cruise over to the Island!
Mercedes SL Top Hoists
I did see a nicely done installation of a Ford 289/V8 into a 280SL and a supercharged GM V-6 in a 190SL, but neither of these projects were *cheap* by any stretch.
I'd say that a custom-fitted turbocharger would be easier to configure and design, and less expensive. But I've never seen one.
I know they used to rally-race 280SLs in the old days, but I have no idea how they made them go faster. I'd imagine you could mill the head, find a better camshaft and run dual Webers along with better exhaust, but that's going to a lot of $ per horsepower.
The nice thing about turbo power is that it is cheap for what you get in gain.
Okay, so you have the 280SL with the 450SL body style---in that case, have at it---that car is not going to be worth lots of money, so not problem in "ruining" it for the purists.
If I wanted a better engine for one of those, I'd try to find a V8 out of a W210 E55 AMG (or even a C43), or for cheaper and easier, the M103 I6 out of a W124 or late W126 - the latter was actually offered on Euro cars, and would likely be an easy fit.
It's not a job for the faint at heart though, MB manuals show the procedure and specify measuring the valve to piston clearances as part of the procedure.
My old W126 behaved like that once, but the dashboard lit up at the same time. Some relay had failed, easy DIY fix - but it didn't have the same engine as your car.
You could privately import any car that is 25+ years old, but it'd be an expensive undertaking.
A highline dealer in my town has a grey market 107 of some sort in the showroom, it even has headlight wipers. It looks spotless.
I wouldn't *touch* a Euro car that doesn't have its DOT or EPA papers.
Some of course, are older than 25 years, so no problem, and some are titled as older years than they actually are, --also to beat EPA/DOT requirements. You'll see ads for instace like "spec 2000, year 1964 Mini Cooper".
Looks pretty nice, but they all do, in photos. You need eyeballs on the car to know what it really is, or is not.
Here's the LISTING for those who couldn't find it.
Of course, the EPA/DOT can change the game any time it wishes, like it did with the Nissan Skyline gray market cars. But that won't happen with old Benzes like this.
The EPA/DOT BS always makes me laugh, when in real first world countries the grey market restrictions aren't nearly so tight. I wonder who bought those laws, and how much is wasted enforcing them.
Gray market cars came under scrutiny of DOT and EPA because of all the outrageous scams that went on in the 1980s, and NO DOUBT due to lobbying by legitimate foreign car automakers / dealers who resented having to compete with outlaws for the USA market share. I believe Mercedes dealers were particularly adamant in demanding that the EPA/DOT crack down on gray market cars.
The DOT/EPA junk is 100% because of carmakers and dealers who didn't want competition, I can't see it any other way. Saying it is about "safety" is about the same as saying speed enforcement is for safety and not revenue. You get the justice you pay for in this society.
It kills me that overpaid federal suits will crackdown and persecute those who import a handful of enthusiast cars, but in the vast majority of states, one can drive a bald-tired no-braked rotten old heap without worry, so long as it was sold in the US when new. Crazy.
But they require that you conform to a set of rules and may require safety modifications, assignment onto a registry, and government approval.
If you aren't on the list of approved types of "enthusiast" cars, I guess you are SOL in OZ?
you can read about the Aussie regs here:
http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/motor/sevs/index.aspx
Yes of course part of EPA/DOT regs were due to dealer pressures, but there's no denying that traffic deaths have decreased dramatically.
Rules and regs in *any* government are fueled by political will and not really on any rational basis. Politics supports auto safety for instance, but not gun control or allow an uneducated person from one country to become a citizen but not a PhD from another country.
Go figure--it's politics for sure.
If nothing else, the history of EPA/DOT and the history of the American auto industry in the last 30 years should convince anyone that there is no such thing as a "free market" around here.
Big lobbies rule.
This doesn't make it too hard to ship a JDM unit into Oz. A quick check of Oz ebay shows lots of weird Japanese and US market stuff there - not all of it classic or specialty material either. Odd Japanese microvans and mundane sedans, malaisey yank tanks, not exactly enthusiast vehicles.
How do traffic deaths relate to a handful of weirdo foreign market cars being imported? I'd wager any of them would be better maintained than a typical domestic of similar age. That I can't bring a Skyline here but I can drive a rotten 25 year old heap with threadbare tires and no brakes just fine says it all.
Free markets are indeed a lie. There's no rational reason to this, it just makes the US laughable in yet another way. Spend a day in Vancouver and see how much cool weird stuff is on the roads. You can't throw a cat without hitting a RHD RX7, Supra or a Skyline.