SL in rollover accident
 

Has anyone experience/seen a rollover accident involving a SL with the hardtop on? I am wondering how well they would stand up to a rollover.

I don't have the experience on an actual rollover, I would imagine your chance of walking away is pretty high with the hardtop and the roll bar.

rollover
 

The hard-top for the 107 was designed to support the weight of the car. I've never seen it happen, though.

David

On the internet somewhere...
 

... there an R129 losing control and flipping end over end caught on one of the Autobahn's cameras. I believe as the car skidded to a halt, upside down sans roof, the occupants clambered out, saved from certain decapitation by the rollbar which appears to have deployed.

97 SL500 triple blk
sprt pkg1
27k miles

RonSS,
What kind of SL are you referring? The 107 or the 129? 107 does not have pop up roll bar.

I was thinking of the older 107's without the rollbar.

I saw that Autobahn footage years ago. It was a R129. 60 Minutes was doing a piece on rool over safety. That R129 was estimated at going 150 mph. He was in the fast lane, lost control and skidded into the guard rail. The car went flying over to the right right side of the road, hit a dip on the right side, flipped completely over onto it's roof (soft top), slid about a total of 400 feet, hit that dip again flipped back upright and the soft top went flying off. About 20 secoonds later the driver climbed out the passenger side door, climb up the hill a little and sat there with his head resting on his knees. They say the roll bar saved his life.

R129 Rollover
 

There was a website which showed a factory R129 that was painted orange for testing. It showed the strength of the A-pillars of the R129 in a rollover situation with sequential photos. They also showed another photo shoot of the R129 as it was driven onto a corkscrew ramp which flipped the car on it's side and eventually onto it's roof. It was really impressive to see firsthand the tremendous strength and quality built into these German commuter tanks. I will try to find it in my viewing history or via Google.

Here is the link:
http://www.whnet.com/4x4/slroll.html

This car is one strong mother.... shut your mouth!! :eek:

At the launch of the 129 a Japenese journalist rolled one with the hard top in place. MB put it on display as a testament to the car's integrity. There is a picture in a back issue of Car somewhere. While in production MB reckoned the car was as safe as any of their saloons in any type of smash, roll over included.

I forget where i read this but the R129 A pilar/roll bar was designed so they/it could support the entire weight of the car. If you ever wondered why the r129 is that heavy then this might provide a bit of info on why it is.