Who doesn't love a manual Mercedes? Did we mention it's yellow and you can go topless? We found this 1999 Mercedes-Benz SLK RENNtech listed over the weekend for $19,500 USD in Seattle, Washington with only 55k-miles. The seller claims this is a fully built, authentic RENNtech car featuring a larger supercharger, flywheel, tune, and suspension. Interior appears to be largely stock, however, it is equipped with a factory 5-speed manual transmission (Covid mask appropriately hanging from the shifter) which automatically gives it cool points and makes for a more connected driving experience. The body also appears to be mostly stock Mercedes aside from the added OZ Racing wheels and front bumper which appears to be slightly modified.
To say the least, this is a very interesting find and the seller seems to know it's special. A stock SLK230 Kompressor produced 185hp from the factory and the seller states he doesn't know what kind of power it's currently producing but was told around 300hp. From our research, the car should be around 250hp based on information we've gathered around the interwebs. We found another SLK230 RENNtech in silver back in 2018 on Craigslist which also had the 5-speed manual but also had a full body-kit. This car had similar mileage at 53k and clearly had upgraded Alcon brakes by RENNtech along with a full exhaust which this yellow one may be missing. Needless to say, these are rare on today's market and weren't exactly common place two decades ago either.
Unfortunately for this particular SLK, we can't quite tell if it has RENNtech exhaust or upgraded brakes which would've likely been Alcon or Brembo from the period. It would also be ideal to add at least an AMG sport kit to this to really set off the look. On the other hand, there's something to be said for originality and as the saying goes, it's only original once. Remember this car was built by RENNtech back when there was no SLK32 AMG version to be had (2001 being the first year) so this was the top of the pyramid for R170s in the day in both quality and performance. The seller states the car is in excellent running condition although the top may intermittently work, they state it always works when it's taken to the dealership to be checked out... typical Mercedes.
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