All the cool kids on social media are wrapping their cars to look like manga art. Paying homage to manga like "Initial D" or "Wangan Midnight," people seem to love doing their cars up in flat colors and speed lines. But while the cars of manga and anime come from reality, the cars of reality too owe their shape and structure to pen and paper — the early design sketches that eventually become the roadgoing vehicles we know and love. Now, you have the chance to buy an R129 Mercedes-Benz SL done up not
as manga, but as its own concept art.
This 1997 Mercedes SL500, currently up for auction at Cars & Bids, was wrapped white and covered in black paint for artist Joshua Vides' Check Engine Light show in Los Angeles alongside a Porsche 911 and a Honda Civic. The cars were all done up with the goal of "taking everything back to its original sketch," according to Vides, and this SL looks like just that — the earliest concept drawings from Mercedes sprung to life. It's sketchy, but in a good way.
Read more: Do Turbo Engines Need More Frequent Oil Changes?
Or, In A Mostly Good Way.
Sure, okay, a luxury car with 225,700 miles is not most people's idea of a perfectly reliable, sketch-free cruiser. But the R129-generation SL is known for its reliability, and that 5.0-liter V8 will likely keep ticking for a good while longer. That's a good thing, too — this car may be art, but what good is art that no one ever gets to see? When you buy this, not if, you should drive it as regularly as possible. Daily it, even. Maybe just ask Vides whether the paint he used is water-based before taking it out in the rain.
Vides' original art covered the lights and windows, but that's all been removed to make this SL driveable — you're doing it a disservice if you leave it sitting in some climate-controlled garage. Folks deserve to see this hand-drawn art in person, and you deserve to be the one who brings it to them atop four AMG monoblocks. You won't find another one of these anywhere else, but Cars & Bids has you covered.
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