Tony,

I don't have any answers to your questions. But I can testify that there is at least one in the US. About four years ago, I was shopping for a used MB diesel, and saw a five speed 300SL at a used MB dealer. I was amazed to see it. At the time I was in a situation that demanded a four door car, or I would have bought it.

I am a MB manual transmission fanatic myself. I expect that they are more rare than my manual transmission 300E. Given that there were many more 300E's than SL's sold, and given that few SL's in the US at any time have ever been manuals, I expect that there are probably less than 100 in the US, and maybe many less than that.

Good luck in finding one,

------------------
Larry Bible
'01 C Class, Six Speed
'84 Euro 240D, manual, 533K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
'81 300D Daughter's Car
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles