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The SL350 got me into a fair amount of trouble, you know. Friends called me after my school reunion and said, “My child’s asking my husband why we can’t have a cool Transformer car like Pablo’s. You’re such a rascal!” I have to say that I received all this with a smile on my face, partly because it was all said in jest, but mainly because I appeared to have achieved my objective — rock up to the reunion in the SL, create a bit of a stir, have a party and leave in a cloud of tyre smoke. This kind of out-there behaviour is highly unusual for me, I hasten to add — in any large gathering, you’ll usually find me in a quiet corner, nursing a beverage and minding my own business. This, however, is the kind of car that makes even a wallflower like me want to preen a bit.
The SL is one of the truly iconic cars and one that has a special resonance at Business Standard Motoring — Sameer Kumar and Param flogged the previous generation SL500 to within an inch of its life, making for a memorable story, and Srini put the SL63 AMG alongside the fabulous 300SL roadster for his ‘retirement’ piece. When I began making plans to attend the 50th anniversary celebrations of my beloved alma mater, the Blue Mountains School in Ooty, I decided that I wanted to drive up, and not just in any old car — the steed had to befit the occasion, and the SL immediately put its hand up. Sure, the SL550 or an AMG would have been the icing on the cake, but this car is certainly no shrinking violet.
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