garage notes | roadsters of their time.
mercedes r129 sl vs a236 cle.
there they were, nonchalantly parked next to each other on the cay of marina santa cruz in tenerife, canary islands. relieving me of the question, with which cars to go with for the first round of our garage notes. yes, us being petrol heads, we might do this more often, maybe even regularly. the inspiration for these (mental and written) notes of what excites us with certain cars started with our Porsche 944 S, but we also want to look left and right and share stories about other cars we notice and that spark some kind of thought or curiosity.
the cars in question: a circa 1995 Mercedes R129 SL 500 in dark grey (onyxgrau 721? — feel free to enlighten me), firstly parked on its own. six (instead of seven) slats in its front grille and the clear front turn signal indicator covers outed it as a post-facelift 1 model.
fascinating enough on its own, next to it turned up a black 2024 CLE — in my opinion closest to the SL’s present equivalent since the 2022 R232 SL was developed under AMG leadership.
similar in kind, the two represent different eras of automobilbau. bruno saccos 80s straight lines and edges on the SL. cw-friendly soft curves on the CLE. stunning, not aggressive, and in the author's opinion one of the best Mercedes designs as of recent. we need not speak of the difference in sheer size.
the CLE's interior is all-screen, whereas for the SL the digital odometer was cutting edge. one might find this symbolic for the importance of technology (and displays) in our daily life today.
the SL has already aced the test of time, and for the CLE — although the big screen slightly worries me looking 10+ years down the road — i think we can be optimistic. i’ll leave it at the optics for today since i have not driven any of the two so far — hopefully this changes and we can follow this up with a review from the road. given the choice, which key would you pick up first?
one for the road — something that makes me smile: the painted-black inside of the CLEs sleek headlights and mr sacco's genius (always does).
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