Road trip Los Angeles -Monterey in the Mercedes SL 380: Off to the north

Mobility is changing and no one will be able to ignore it. The automakers outdo each other in announcements, who will say goodbye to the evil internal combustion engine faster and finally switch to the glorious electric age. For many customers, this causes incomprehension, irritation and uncertainty, because many have loved their cars for many decades. And how beautiful a ride in an open classic can be can be shown better on hardly any other road than on California State Route 1, better known to many as the legendary Highway Number One, which leads from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

If the route is so well known, the car shouldn’t be a no name. With the Mercedes SL Roadster of the generation R 107 is a jubilee, because the successor to the Pagoda is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. The dream car for the dream route in dream weather is not quite that old; However, with the year of construction 1981 and the 1982 model, it has already been four decades under its belt. It is presented in the US version with the not very delicate bumpers, round headlights in bright red with a black roof and dark synthetic leather seats, which were particularly popular in the main US market. Of the less than 79,000 miles that are on the speedometer, the majority was not driven on American roads, but on the test bench. A small sticker in the passenger door proves that the SL 380 engine is model one. In other words: all American Daimler vehicles with the 3.8 liter eight-cylinder go back to the votes of this red sun worshiper. Today he will get to see more on the varied Pacific coast than the boring roller dynamometer.

The tour begins around an hour south of Los Angeles in the morning and so the red Mercedes 380 SL can first show what it can do in everyday operation on Highways 5, 10 and 405 in the dense city traffic of the greater Los Angeles area. The roof is folded down manually, the windows are lowered electrically and the KIIS FM rattles on the Becker radio with the latest hits after the electric Hirschmann antenna has stretched into the sunny sky. Already on the first miles it is noticeable that the engine does not have the steam that one would have expected from the well-known eight-cylinder. The reason for this is the unusually strict emissions legislation in the USA at the time, because instead of the usual 150 kW / 204 hp, the 3.8-liter engine only produces a narrow 114 kW / 155 hp and the 267 Nm is significantly less than the customer’s can enjoy in Europe. The 380 replaced the 450 SL by 1985.

But the slowed-down thirst for action can hardly stop the enthusiasm of the sun tour and the 110 mph / 176 km / h promised factory should not be in danger on the winding coastal route anyway. Incidentally, the speedometer only goes up to 85 miles. Via Highway 10 it goes to Santa Monica, where the actual tour begins. A short detour to the Malibu trendy shop Sun Life Organics, where the local beach beauties get their health drinks after getting tired of beach yoga and Pilates. The so-called Billion Dollar Meal, which looks just as tasty as it tastes for 29 dollars, is particularly popular. Better to go to Ralph ‘s supermarket and have a few bottles of sparkling water.

Route 1 takes you north with the usual morning clouds over the cool Pacific and the warmth of the mountains in the east. Neptuns Net, Point Mugu, a few campers or the not very neat Oxnard pass by until Ventura, Carpinteria and finally a coffee stop in Santa Barbara. The Spanish-style city has gotten a bit younger in recent years, but families and older wealthy citizens still dominate the cityscape up the slopes. You can live here – especially with an open classic roadster. After Santa Barbara you can choose the route: either the classic coastal tour or the more beautiful driving on the old routes of the Chumash Indians. The decision for the Indian route of the federal road 154 and against the classic 101 also means a considerable increase in temperature, because instead of the 23 degrees Celsius before it is over 35 degrees in the no man’s land southeast of Lake Cachuma, which is well worth seeing.

None of this contests the red two-seater from Daimler’s production facility in Bremen. With its manageable 155 PS and the discreetly tinkering automatic gearbox, it happily pulls its lanes – uphill and downhill. The windows stay down, the original Mercedes wind deflector as well and Spanish whimpering chants are now rattling from the radio. Bergan shows that the engine is not as powerful as its European brothers, but the heat does not cause any trouble and 267 Nm torque is enough that nobody can overtake you. Via Santa Ynez, Solvang and Buellton we head west back on the classic Route 1 and the temperatures drop by almost 20 degrees Celsius in a few minutes. The tank is still more than half full, but a couple of cool drinks bring 40 fresh liters of fuel into the tank for just under five dollars a gallon. We continue to the traditionally most beautiful stretch of the South-North Passage, which begins behind San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay.

California Route 1 remains as empty on this sunny day as it was before. Due to the pandemic, those tourists who otherwise populate the route with characterless rental cars and lame mobile homes are missing. There are only two handful of US tourists and a few car fans who want to have fun on the bend in their high-powered sports car. The red 380 is not sporty, but here it shows what it has always been: a perfect cruiser with which you can comfortably cover long distances. The indirect steering and the soft chassis are perfect for the occasionally broken route, where it would otherwise hit hard. The rest is cushioned by the leather-covered chair, which could otherwise also be heated at that time upon special request. But it is not that cool in mid-August and if it blows in from the Pacific, you can always close the side windows or even fold up the wind deflector.

On the last few kilometers in the direction of Monterey, behind the former hippie paradise of Big Sur, it gets faster and yet a bit fuller. The first car fans for the Monterey Autoweek are announcing themselves and overtaking the mobile sun terrace, which cruises casually at around 50 miles per hour. Can a tour in a roadster or convertible be more perfect? And when the electric cars have taken over, there will hardly be any open vehicles of this type. Most convertibles have already disappeared from the market. So every car fan should see if he doesn’t get a joker with a combustion engine into his own garage beforehand – maybe just one like the Mercedes SL of the R 107 series, because there has probably not been a more ideal SL. And it doesn’t always have to be a trip on California 1 from Los Angeles to San Francisco.