According to the ‘Used Car Order Form’ in the history file, our current owner purchased this Mercedes in July 1988 from The Wilmslow Motor Company.

Whilst trying to research the early years we input the chassis number into the website ‘lastvin.com’ and made some interesting discoveries; the first of which is the ‘order location’ turned out to be Malawi, Africa, with a delivery date of August 1986.

Now we have no way of knowing if the Mercedes ever went to Malawi (we doubt it), but in the 80s Mercedes would deliver a car to almost any location irrespective of where the order was placed.

Our 300SL was registered in the UK only six months later in February 1987.

The accompanying VIN check sheet also gives us the specification and colour choices that were originally ordered; the SL being ordered in Nautical Blue Metallic paint and Beige Fabric upholstery.

Clearly, it now has Light Beige ‘leather’ upholstery piped in blue, so we assume the leather was retro fitted in the early years, p...