The Mercedes SL used to be the McLaren F1 of its day. What happened? — The Carmudgeon Show — Ep. 6

When the W198 generation Mercedes 300SL road car came out in 1954, it was the McLaren F1 of its day. A no-compromises, high-tech, and exotic car that went faster than any other roadgoing car, it was decades ahead of its time.

We discuss subsequent generations of the SL including the W113 or Pagoda (230SL, 250SL and 280SL), R107 (350SL, 280SL 450SL, 380SL, 300SL 420SL, 560SL), R129 (300SL, 500SL, 600SL, SL280, SL320, SL500, SL600), R230 (SL500, SL600, SL550, SL55, SL63, SL65), and R231 and how they developed into grand tourers that were neither Sport nor Light as the original name implies. Ultimately, we conclude that the SLR McLaren (C199, R199), SLS (197, R197), and AMG GT (C190, R190) are much closer to the original spirit of the SL.

The Carmudgeon Show is a comedic, information-filled 25-minute 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 250 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.

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