I got to drive a friend's SL 280 occasionally in the 1979-1981 time period. I was living in their S. Beverly Drive condo for a short time in between two other places, and the car would have been a '79 or '80. You'd see them all around L.A. then, especially on the west side, and my God, the feel of how that thing handled. I think the words "solid" and "elegant" had to be taken out of storage, dusted off, and redefined for that car.