My timing for starting this thread was good because as it happens I travelled interstate from Sydney to Melbourne to visit the MB Club of Victoria (Australia) concours on the weekend. At the concours I met an owner of a 190E 2.6 Sportline (automatic) who has done some research. He told me that only 15 190E Sportlines (any engine size) came to Australia. It is believed that most were automatic and possibly my 2.3 is the only manual in Oz.

On Monday the club organised a tour of three private collections of very rare and valuable cars. The highlights of the first collection were an 1896 Benz (which was started to prove it goes), a 1936 540K (just superb) and a Bugatti among others. The second collection also included an early Benz W5 and several race cars including some previously raced by Sir Jack Brabham. The third and largest collection also included a 540K, several 1950s 300SLs (gullwings and roadsters), several 1960s 600s (standard and pullman including laundelet), a 1950s 300Sc cabriolet, a 280SE 3.5 cabriolet, a 190E 2.5-16 Evo 2, numerous other Mercedes and many examples of other marques including Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, Bentley and Rolls Royce. The one thing common to all the cars in this collection was their rarity. Adjoining this collection is a workshop with full time staff undertaking restorations of more rare and exotic cars.

In all, a fantastic weekend for the car enthusiast and well worth the 1800km return journey. I drove my 190E 2.3 Sportline (the first long trip I have done with it) and it performed faultlessly using no oil and only 8 litres/100km of fuel travelling at around 115km/h for most of the journey.

Getting back to some of your replies, I am surprised to hear of the 450SL manual. To the best of my knowledge, the only V8 available in manual was the 3.5 (ie. 280SE-3.5, 350SL, 350SLC, 350SE, etc.) Regarding the 450SLC, they are still quite common in Australia although not in the numbers of 107 series SLs. The 350SLC is not as common and the 280SLC and 380SLC are scarce. 450SEL-6.9s are not common, but I believe there are still several dozen in Australia.

Let's hear about more rare Mercs and please tell me if you know of a Sportline like mine.

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107.023: 350SLC, 3-speed auto, icon gold, parchment MBtex (sold 2012 after 29 years ownership).
107.026: 500SLC, 4-speed auto, thistle green, green velour.
124.090: 300TE, 4-speed auto, arctic white, cream-beige MBtex.
201.028: 190E 2.3 Sportline, 5-speed manual, arctic white, blue leather.
201.028: 190E 2.3, 4-speed auto, blue-black, grey MBtex.
201.034: 190E 2.3-16, 5-speed manual, blue-black, black leather.