In this podcast, Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott ("Hyphen") cover everything you didn't realize you wanted to know about the R129-chassis Mercedes-Benz SL.
The R129 comes in many forms: 300SL, 300SL-24, 500SL, 600SL, and then the renamed SL320, SL500, and SL600. It had three different body styles and two interiors thanks to two facelifts, three different transmissions in the U.S. — a 4-speed automatic, a 5-speed automatic, and a 5-speed dogleg manual transmission.
And the 500SL/SL500 had 3 different engines: a CIS-E "K-Jetronic" tall-deck M119, a LH-Jetronic short-deck M119, both with 4 cams, 4 valves per cylinder, and VVT; and then a 2-cam, 3-valve, non-VVT M113.
So which is the one to get? Which variants drive the best? Which R129s suffer from the dreaded wiring-harness failure?
How much did Jason's 300SL 5-speed weigh?
These are important questions. But the Carmudgeons also talk about the R129's fascinating development history including — why the car that Bruno Sacco himself described as "perfect" was 10 years late. They discuss the R129's world-firsts, like the first-ever fully automatic roof mechanism (and its failure-prone 11 hydraulic cylinders), the first-ever popup rollover protection, the world's first seat-mounted seatbelts (with magnesium-frame seats); and the first time the world ever saw a convertible wind deflector.
The R129 was a technological tour de force, combined with a timelessly elegant and stunningly beautiful design and absolutely impeccable build quality, making it the high point of every generation of Mercedes SL — excepting of course the original W198 300SL Gullwing, which wasn't an SL at all.
Huh? Yeah, you're going to have to watch the episode to figure that one out.
The Carmudgeon Show is part of the Hagerty Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Released:
Feb 13, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Part of the Hagerty Podcast Network, the Carmudgeon Show is a comedic, information-filled conversation with Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott, two car enthusiasts who are curmudgeonly beyond their years. Proving you don’t have to be old to be grumpy, they spend each episode talking about what’s wrong with various parts of the automotive universe. Despite their best efforts to keep it negative, they usually wind up laughing, happy, and extolling their love for cars. Which just makes them angrier and more bitter.
Jason Cammisa is an automotive journalist, social-media figure, and TV host with over 300 million views on YouTube alone. Jason’s deeply technical understanding, made possible by a lifelong obsession with cars, allows him to fully digest what’s going on within an automobile — and then put it into simple terms for others to understand. Also, a Master’s Degree in Law trained him to be impossible to argue with.
Derek Tam-Scott still tries. He’s a young automotive expert with old-man taste in cars, and a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering — which means he knows how to be civil to Jason. Or at least he tries. With a decade and a half’s experience buying, selling, driving and brokering classic and exotic cars, he’s experienced the world’s most iconic cars. And hated most of them.
