280SL Pagoda
A car with an almost-perfect reputation. Sixteen years of production, very few bad ones built. Ours has 84,000 honest miles, three documented owners, and a recent engine refresh by Anders.
The Pagoda — named for the slightly concave hardtop — sits in the part of the catalogue that most renters do not expect to be able to drive. A car you remember seeing in films, not a car you remember being inside. The list of people who borrowed it last year includes two architects, one veterinarian, one bridge engineer, and one couple who married in it.
Mechanically it is straightforward to live with for a week. Inline-six, fuel-injected, four-speed automatic, no quirks once warm. We give every renter a long handover before the keys change hands — twenty minutes, two coffees, every detail of the car explained in plain language.
The hardtop comes on or off depending on weather and your preference. We do both for you at the workshop, included in the price.
One car, three owners, fifty-three years.
Every car in the garage comes with a documented history. Where it came from, who looked after it, what has been done to it. This one's is short and unusually clean.
Delivered new in Hamburg to a chemical engineer who kept it for twenty-six years. Original colour. Original interior. Driven daily until 1989, then weekends only.
Bought at auction from the engineer's estate. Sixty-two thousand miles, two service binders, and one apologetic note about the cigarette burn on the rear passenger seat. We left the burn.
Full engine rebuild by Anders. New brakes, new tyres, new fuel lines, all original-spec. Drives as well now as the previous owner said it did in 1976.