The 1960s were arguably the high point of Mercedes-Benz design. While some prefer the more ornate automobiles of the 1930s and others admire the charm of the three-pointed star’s postwar machines, the 1960s brought us the Heckflosse (launched in 1959; the name means “fintail”); the stately W108, which deleted the Heckflosse’s eponymous tailfins; the W114 E-class harbinger; and, perhaps most notably, the pagoda-roofed SL.
Designed to be less full-race than its predecessor 300SL and more sporting than the four-cylinder 190SL, the 230SL launched in 1963. Many find the W113 cars, designed by Paul Bracq and Béla Barényi, to be the most beautiful of all Mercedes two-seaters. Another contingent, naturally, insists that loveliness is not always enough—that a certain beauty requires a measure of beastliness. And that’s how we come to this LS1-powered Pagoda SL.
Less than a decade ago, automatic-transmission Pagodas were a reasonable buy. They could be found for under $10,000 in decent condition. Since then, W113s have gone the way of air-cooled 911s, Citroën SMs, Alfa Romeo Montreals, and other gems of the era that seemed undervalued at the time but command wallet-punishing prices today. So we understand why, way back when the LS1 was the hot engine-swap ticket, some guy might’ve thought it prudent to take a Pagoda and excise the Mercedes straight-six. Numbers-matching originality was not yet rewarding enough to argue against the swap.
In its day, Rudi Uhlenhaut took a W113 toe to toe with a V-12 Ferrari, but a modern-era Corvette motor will walk a Colombo twelve all day long—and serve up burnouts for dessert. And it’s not as if the small-block/European-sports-car idea hasn’t been exploited to grand effect by many visionaries. There is plenty of precedent.
This particular car, a 1965 230SL found on Craigslist out of Austin, Texas, looks surprisingly unmolested, given the path some hot rodders are all too tempted to take when making these engine swaps. This one has no side pipes, no hood scoops, no Testarossa-style strakes crafted from chicken wire and Bondo. Even the twin-tip right-hand-side exhaust outlet has been preserved. The only giveaway that something’s off—at least to the casual observer—is the unfortunate set of billet wheels. Slap on some widened Benz steelies with color-matched enamel center caps, and few would expect you to be smoking 5.0s at stoplight drags on South Congress. Last week, the car was up for sale with a $60,000 asking price, but the owner has decided against letting his bullet-train Pagoda go and is trying to find out information on whoever built the hairy sucker. Come to think of it, we’d like to know that, too.
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