Isn’t it strange how the same car, with only very minor differences, can elicit contradictory feelings? This sublime Benz is exactly that. I caught a Pagoda last year and it really didn’t go well. Wrong day, wrong setting, wrong colour, wrong version? Well, yes. And here is its mirror opposite – the same damn car, but irresistible.
When I say “the same damn car,” I mean another W113 with its famous hardtop. The one I caught last year was a later model with sealed beam headlamps and it wore a sort of lilac hue that, while not absolutely horrid, did not do the car any favours. White works much better.
Here, we have an early model. I picked 1965 as a year, but really I have no idea – these came out in March 1963 and were made until 1967. As far as I know, there were no particular visible changes from one model year to the next.
Compared again to the lilac car I found last year, this one seems to have the correct tyres and it doesn’t look gangly or jacked up. It’s wearing the correct headlights – another crucial detail. And Mercedes did add a few bits of side trim to the W113 over the years, which did not improve anything.
It also helps that this 230SL is (as expected in Tokyo) either superbly preserved or carefully restored, and in either case well cared for. That was not exactly the case of the 280SL I caught last year, which was quite scruffy in places.
Not that I mind a bit of dirt on my CCs – these are 50-plus year-old automobiles, after all – but I wasn’t exactly a beggar, so I can be a chooser. So I’ll choose the pristine one over the not-as-nice one as a subject to photograph. Because why not?
I failed to capture the interior of the previous Pagoda, and sort of did it again this time around. My side interior shot was a blurry mess. But this one was usable. At least the huge glass area was of use. Thank you, Monsieur Bracq!
I do a lot of my CC discoveries on weekends. More classics prowl the streets and I usually can find the time to prowl them myself, so we eventually meet up. Case in point: I found our feature car on a Sunday in the late afternoon, in a mercifully deserted street. This does not preclude the odd weekday encounter of course, but those are rare and usually around noon.
And that is when last year’s lilac W113 was found, sitting right in the midday sun in a dingy alley. There are always ways to make the best of a bad situation, but the wrong car in the wrong place at the wrong time was a lot to ask. Early mornings can also be challenging, but there is usually room for maneuver. Nighttime finds are an absolute nightmare and high noon is a close second. But if you want to do some easy CC picking and picturing, the Golden Hour (just before sunset) is a sure thing.
The Pagoda is back to being a thing of beauty to my eye. It’s not a perfect design – some of what I levelled against it in my 280SL post remains. But I can once again overlook the tall glasshouse and somewhat jarring jumble of lines created by the hardtop in profile and focus on the car’s tasteful restraint and magnificent detailing. The world makes sense again and the night can now fall on the city; this W113 made my day.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL (W113) – A Fish In The Percolator, by T87
CC Capsule: 1967 Mercedes-Benz 280SL – Triste, by Joseph Dennis
Curbside Classic: 1963 Mercedes-Benz 230SL – Big Shoes To Fill, by Tom Klockau
I’ve never been in one of these, but the cockpit seems at the least appropriately tall and airy. Initially, the proportions almost come across gawky, but it all pulls together wonderfully in a potentially realistic way for actual humans to occupy.
It’s like a German 1955 Thunderbird.
Too bad you couldn’t get a shot if a Pagoda at a pagoda… 😉
Timeless design.
Thirty years ago, my assigned parking space at work was next to one of these, and it was this exact same cream color. I was always careful not to fling a door open too quickly next it it. Just a gorgeous little jewel of a car.
Even then these were rare in the USA, especially compared to their R107 successors, which for a while seemed to be a mandatory purchase for upper-middle-class, middle-aged, divorced men.
Colour is hellelfenbein, or light ivory. 113s are as nice a car as you could find, super elegant.
Part of getting the look “right” is getting the proper tire size and correct ride height at each end of the car, and then photographing it correctly. Cars with leaf springs, in particular, seem to suffer sag, and then the stance is all “off”.
This one is a nice example of having it all “right”. However, the front tires have the whitewalls either heavily scuffed, or otherwise turned to dark grey, as there appears to be traces of a lighter sidewall there. But, one seen, never unseen, for me. The front tires and the back tires don’t match up, and they have the same issue on both sides of the car. It throws things off for me.
Beautiful cars and rare, here anyway.
Family friend bought new Buicks every two years, i.e., ’61 Estate Wagon, ’61 Electra convertible. That year, he also bought a turquoise Thunderbird- third car. His next third car was a ’66 Pagoda in Papyrus White- a kind of icy white. Gorgeous color. With white walls. $8,000. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still in the family.
Equals about $69K today.
About 1987 I found a 230sl advertised in the local paper, so I went over to check it out.
It was like no other 230sl I had ever seen. It had a back seat that could hold 2 adults, but in rather cramped conditions. It only had foot room if the front seats were moved forward. But to create this, something had to go. What went was the folding top well. There was no folding top, only the factory removable hardtop. The back seat upper section folded down flat as well.
The guy who owned the car really wanted to sell it as he was leaving the area, and he accepted my very low offer. I was willing to take a chance if the price was right.
This was pre-internet, and all the so-called 230sl experts said it wasn’t a factory car, suggesting some local body shop had probably made it. Took me a long time to sell the car, as soon as buyers saw it had no folding top, they got back in their car and sped away. It wasn’t until about 15 years ago I finally discovered it really was a factory production car, intended for sale only in southern California, and known as a California Special.
And of course, today they are highly sought after, especially in climates where it never rains, or where it always rains and the hard top stays on year round! I’m including a photo showing the back seat of a California Special. And, yes, Mercedes-Benz introduced a model called the California Special, long before there was a Ford Mustang with the same name.
Does the sag in the roof make it stiffer, or were they just being different to attract the eye?
My HS American Lit teacher had one of these in the mid 70’s. Odd that I can remember her car but not her name at the moment.
That’s a beauty – great pics….
My favorite Mercedes, hands down. The only thing better than this example, for me—even the color is perfect—would be one with a manual transmission. Was such a car ever sold in America ? If so, what would the transmission be—a five-speed, I guess ?