Pagoda still the yardstick 60 years later

When you see a Mercedes-Benz 230 SL Coupe it is still hard to believe the car made its debut way back at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show.

When Mercedes Chief Engineer Professor Dr Nallinger rolled the deep blue covering cloth off the car, the assembled media quickly realised that Mercedes had well and truly left the 1950s behind.

For in front of them was a grand touring machine of stunning beauty.

Mercedes had been able to combine power, quality, safety, style and wrap it into one elegant and understated package.

If you bought one of these babies back in 1963, you had it all.

And if you have one now, you still have it all.

The brief given to planners in 1959 was to replace two cars in the Mercedes range, the famed gull-winged and uncompromising 300 SL, which many believed to be irreplaceable (and they were right) and the popular, charming but listless boulevard cruiser — the 190 SL sports convertible.

So, the 230 SL was to follow a middle course and designed to be a comfortable, high-performance, reliable, two-seater grand touring car with exemplary driving safety.

Head of Mercedes styling Fredrick Geiger and designers Paul Bracq and Bela Barenyi got the shape of the 230 fixed by February, 1960 and the car was in prototype stage soon after.

This was the first Mercedes to have passive safety engineered into the car and boasted radial tyres as standard.

The vehicle body incorporates a rigid passenger cell and crumple zones at the front and rear.

It was Bracq and Bareni who devised the car’s distinctive, patented, slightly concave hardtop which inspired the “Pagoda” nickname, being reminiscent of Eastern temples.

The concave form of the roof also improved passive safety, ensuring greater rigidity at a lesser weight.

In production between 1963 and 1971, the 230 SL started with a 2.3 litre six cylinder engine and progressed through 2.5- and 2.8-litre motors.

Bertone’s Mazda and Citroen look-a-likes

The Pagoda now has a status which very few vehicles are ever are able to achieve.

Those in the advertising industry turn to it regularly whenever they want to use a symbol that immediately conveys timeless, classic design and high levels of boulevard chic.

They made 49,000 Pagodas and most are left-hand drive.

David Burrell is the editor of retroautos