Thank you Suganami, for your comments. I am looking forward to do as you say, as soon as we reach the mark. Perhaps in six months time.

It is my firm intention to drive this car for the next 20 years at least. At 6,000 miles per year, it will bring me to about 270,000 miles, a drop in the bucket. I will try to keep it looking as new as possible all that time, and I believe I will succeed. After that, it will probably go to my most beloved grandson. Not yet born, but planning is everything. (None of my sons are married)

Meanwhile, I am having a lot of fun. Of course, keeping it looking new requires time and care, as well as money. Luckily for me, I found an excellent MB shop, where my “Beautiful” is maintained properly. For instance, I took it for an oil change, and was told that the shift bushings needed replacement. The shifting was ok as far as I could tell, but, it is a high mileage car, and I did not get a lot of paper with it. All I had was a carfax report when I bought it, so. In my deepest voice, I said.. “go ahead.., make the change”. And lo and behold, what a difference in the feel upon shifting gears. Now it feels tight and yet smooth. A much nicer feel. So I call myself lucky to have found a good mechanic, one that will not take advantage of my fears and ignorance, as so many of them do.

Mind you, I am not totally ignorant about cars. I have learned to take them apart and put them together again while fairly young. My first car was an MG Midget, I bought it for two hundred dollars, and it was not running. A friend of mine helped me tow it from Indianapolis to Crawfordsville, Indiana. This was at the end of a school year. There, in a friend’s garage, I took the car apart, with the help of an MG Manual, and put it together again. It took two weeks. Afterwards, I drove that little thing to Los Angeles, where I spent summer vacation. I was hooked on these cars. I came to New York for Post graduate work, and the first thing I did was look for another MG. This time I found a 1960 MGA.
It seems I am being carried away down memory lane, there are so many adventures to tell, but I feel that I am intruding, so I will comment again on the thing that bind us together… our beautiful SL’s.

There is one thing I miss. That is the manual transmission. Somehow a manual transmission feels like there is more control. The beast is more responsive when one can force a downshift to 2nd from 3rd in a tight corner, and accelerating rapidly to get by a slow poke. I think am careful though. I drive aggressive-defensive. If it makes sense to you, it does to me.

To LUVMY84300SD, my advice is to get your SL now. We are not getting any younger and every missed day is not coming back…ever. This applies to anything in life. Life is short, and there is no time to waste. Live now, for tomorrow never comes. In this, I agree with TAHODGSON.

Good Story DMORRISON, like you I love to drive, a couple of months ago I needed to go to Florida and I was all set to drive my SL, I was finally defeated by my wife, who threatened to blow up my car if I insisted in “such a foolish thing”. She is absolutely convinced that I fall sleep while driving. Silly woman.
You mention changing the timing chain. My mechanic has already told me that he is going to change the valve cover gaskets, and generally give my car a 150,000-mile check. To tell you the truth, I am a little worried of what he is going to find. I read in this forum a story, in which a car, like mine with no sign of anything wrong, was given a check up, and repairs needed amounted to putting in a new engine. That did not sounded right to me. Let’s wait and see. I’ll keep you posted guys, if, and when, I do the deed.