The ad for today’s Nice Price or No Dice SL600 claims the car’s twin-turbo V12 has been massaged by RENNTech, resulting in a 635-horsepower output. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but we’ll still have to determine if its price tag is nothing more than a fever dream.
Everybody likes to be an insider. You know, get the backstage pass. In the automotive world, it’s cool to know the factory codes denoting performance editions or special mods. It’s cool, that is, until that knowledge goes mainstream.
That’s what happened to yesterday’s 1997 Chevy Camaro Z28 30th Anniversary edition. Not the anniversary part, mind you, the Z28 part. Originally, Z28 served as nothing more than an internal RPO (Regular Production Number) code signifying a selection of parts that would make the Camaro eligible for SCCA Trans-Am racing. It wasn’t intended to designate a model, but savvy buyers began to refer to the option code as such, and a star was born.
That star dimmed a good bit with the car we looked at yesterday. At $19,000, it found few of you racing to its defense. That price was deemed too high in the comments and resulted in a 79% No Dice loss.
Wringing it out with RENNTech
It’s easy to look at the Z28 as a factory-tuned version of the standard Camaro. Mercedes follows a similar path with its in-house tuner, AMG. That’s not to say, however, that the company’s non-AMG products are a bunch of slouches. Nor has the adoption of AMG as the company’s house band closed the door on outside tuners, as made evident by this 2005 Mercedes-Benz SL 600 with its RENNTech-modded engine.
RENNTech (not RennTeck. Come on, seller, it’s written right there on the intake cover) is a Mercedes tuning specialist company operating out of Stuart, Florida. It was founded in 1989 by Hartmut Feyhl, who had previously spent 12 years working at AMG before that company was pulled into Daimler proper. For the R230 SL 600, RENNTech offers several different stages of tune, the lowest of which bumps the output of the 5.5-liter M275 V12 from an already impressive 493 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque to a staggering 635 horsepower and 780 lb-ft of twist.
That’s what the seller claims this car has, although a peek under the hood reveals that the engine features RENNTech’s carbon fiber air intake, which is part of the R2 tune. The tuner claims this modification is capable of producing 650 horsepower and a full 800 lb-ft of torque.
Sporty, but not so light
That massaged twin-turbo V12 mill is tightly packed into the nose of the SL’s two-seat hardtop convertible body. Matched to the engine is the standard Mercedes five-speed automatic. There’s no indication in the ad whether that, too, has been modified by RENNTech, although the company does offer such a service.
The ad claims the car to be well-maintained and boasts that it is a “Beautiful Vehicle to drive.” If you’re a fan of the R230’s neo-retro styling, then this is a pretty beautiful car to look at as well. The deep black paint looks lustrous and, along with the heavy tint on the windows, lends the car a sinister look.
There is one potential flaw, however. The car wears black-chromed alloy wheels, which are directional and frustratingly swoosh forward on the left side of the car and backward on the right side. They look especially goofy on the passenger side, so some alternative wheels might be in order. The tires wrapped around those wheels appear to have plenty of tread, but we don’t see a date code, and the ad doesn’t tell us their age. Overall, the car has a mere 50,000 miles on the clock.
Topping it off
Of course, the R230’s party piece, like that of its R231 successor, is its fancy mechanical top and bi-way boot lid. That allows for open-air motoring when that is desired, and a quiet, secure space when it is not.
That seems to work as it should, since we see the car in both open and closed forms. Beneath that top is a cabin swaddled in leather and warm wood. This is an SL so it’s also rife with all sorts of gadgets, making for a panoply of levers to pull and buttons to press. Aside from some very minor abrading of the stitching on the driver’s seat side bolster caused by ingress and egress, it all appears to be in stunning condition.
The seller describes the car as being in excellent condition overall, and the pictures back this assertion up. The only place where the car’s presentation falls a little flat is in the engine bay, which could stand a good detailing, as it appears to be somewhat dusty.
Priced to move?
The dusty engine bay notwithstanding, the car, right down to its title, seems clean enough. The wheels, too, shouldn’t be a deal killer since they are more an element of personal taste than an actual issue. At $25,500, this also seems like a unique opportunity to get into a V12 supercar at a potentially not-so-supercar price. Consider how many other 600-plus-horsepower cars one could buy for that kind of cash. Now, how many of those would have a smooth-as-butter twin-turbo V12 under the hood to brag about?
Does that, in fact, seem the case? Is this seemingly well-maintained RENNTech-modded SL 600 worth the $25,500 asking price as it sits? Or does that price tag make this a cool Mercedes that’s a hot mess?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Portland, Oregon, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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