This 1999 Mercedes-Benz SLK230 Kompressor was delivered new through Mercedes-Benz of Princeton to M. David “Dave” Giardino (Princeton, NJ) in March 1999 and immediately sent to RENNtech for a comprehensive performance overhaul. Initial MSRP for this SLK was a fair $41,790 and RENNtech receipts totaled another $41,326. According to Hartmut Feyl, founder of RENNtech, this SLK was the only manual example modified. Finished in Brilliant Silver Metallic (744) over SalsaRed and Black Leather (227), this R170 SLK is powered by a 2.5-liter supercharged 4-cylinder power plant mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. Notable modifications include an authentic Supersprint Exhaust, RENNtech Suspension featuring H&R spring and Koni Sport shocks, a RENNtech limited slip differential, RENNtech Alcon Brakes, and 18” BBS RC wheels. RENNtech also custom programmed the ECU to work with the associated modifications. Additional features include the power-folding hardtop, dual-zone climate control, heated seats, power windows, and a deployable cupholder. Under the owner’s care this SLK received thorough mechanical refurbishment to restore it to the performer RENNtech intended. These services and repairs primarily took place in 2020 and included a complete fluid flush with accompanying filters, new spark plugs, new engine and transmission mounts, new front Koni shocks, new H&R springs, new fuel and brake line hardware, a new Supersprint muffler, new trunk supports, and a fresh alignment. Additionally the wheels and centercaps received a complete refinish. The included carfax report shows 36 service history records and the original RENNtech records are included in the gallery. This RENNtech SLK is now offered with 61k original miles, 2 keys, an original tool kit, an OEM wind deflector, Koni wrenches, records, the original window sticker, a clean Carfax report, and a clean MA title.
The body is finished in Brilliant Silver Metallic (744) and exterior features include headlamp washers and a power-retractable hardtop with an electrically heated rear window. Detailed photos of the exterior are provided in the gallery. This SLK230 features RENNtech ground effects and spoiler and a K40 radar detector mounted under the front license plate. The seller notes some scratches on the body and has included specific photos in the gallery.
The 18x8.5” BBS RC wheels are specific to the original build and were refinished in 2020. The four wheels are wrapped in Michelin PS4S measuring 225/40 at all four corners and showing 2020 date codes. The factory tool kit is included in the trunk. New H&R springs were installed with new Koni shocks that replicate what RENNtech would have used in-period.
The interior is trimmed in Salsa Red and Black Leather (227) with black carpets, two-tone red and black dash, and red center console. The red continues on the door panels. The leather on both bucket seats are heated and in good condition with some wear noted on the driver seat including a tear in the base of the seat and dye wearing off on the bolster. Additional features include manual climate control, cruise control, cup holders, and the factory Mercedes-Benz radio with hidden cassette. SLK-branded OEM velour mats are installed and included with the sale. The red center console was refinished under the owner’s care. 5-point seatbelts have been installed and can be tucked behind the seats.
The four-spoke Sport leather wrapped steering wheel frames a 160-mph speedometer, 7k-rpm tachometer, and additional readouts for fuel level and coolant temperature. The digital odometer reads just at 61k original miles. A digital clock and outside temperature gauge are also present. The horn buttons are in matching red and appear in great condition.
The factory ‘Kompressor’ supercharged 2.3-liter M111 powerplant was rated at 190-hp and 200 lb-ft of torque from the factory prior to the RENNtech 2.5L conversion. RENNtech estimates power output to be 260hp now. Power is sent to the rear wheels via a 5-speed manual transmission. The M111 features a roots-style M62 Eaton supercharger and an air to air intercooler. Services and repairs primarily took place in 2020 and included a complete fluid flush with accompanying filters, new spark plugs, new engine and transmission mounts, new front Koni shocks, new H&R springs, new fuel and brake line hardware, a new Supersprint muffler, new trunk supports, and a fresh alignment. The included carfax report shows 36 service history records and the original RENNtech records are included in the gallery.
This RENNtech SLK is now offered with 61k original miles, 2 keys, an original tool kit, an OEM wind deflector, Koni wrenches, records, the original window sticker, a clean Carfax report, and a clean MA title.
The seller has included the following videos:
Open Transit:
Enclosed Transit:
The winning bidder will receive an email with the quote and option to proceed with shipping.
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32 Comments
wow, this is a hell of a buy for $11K!The Mercedes market absolutely baffles me. You'll have ratty E36 M3s get more love and sell for more than this. But why?? This is way more rare and special. I just can't get over the lack of appreciation for special cars like this. Under $12k is absolutely criminal. So sad, this should've received more attention and the listing was done very well too. No clue where the bidders were. My garage is full or else I would've pounced on this.Awww crap I missed this. I was busy bleeding my brakes. I’m an idiot. Congrats on an amazing car.ProdigalPetrolHead (205) Thanks@pizzavino1 right car, wrong time for me. Congrats!@pizzavino1 Congrats! You got yourself an incredibly fun car! I’ll be in touch.Thanks. I am looking forward to that!@pizzavino1 Congrats! You know who to reach out to after you've had your fun with the car!Wow thanks everyone!$11,750 bid placed by @pizzavino1
$11,500 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
@blakleyleonard Wish I could thumbs-up that comment twiceI know I'll look back on this listing in the future and kick myself for not buying. I remember when we found the car originally and featured it on MB Market back when we were just a blog! It's already a modern classic and it doesn't get any better in terms of rarity, documentation, and spec. Truly the perfect tuner Mercedes done properly by RENNtech. This is the premerger version of the R170.This is one of those times I truly wish I had just more garage space. This feels like one of those things I'm going to wish I bought in 10 years. To those considering, this is extremely rare RENNtech history and likely a very spirited drive. Jealous of the winner already.@RENNtech Good to see you guys here!Sharp looking SLK! From what we can tell by looking at the pictures and invoices, all points at a original RENNtech build. There were only two or three of these 2.5 liter engines built, a rare gem indeed, and HF remembers this one clearly. As stated by seller, the muffler is not original, but we happen to have one in stock - so If the new owner wants to change it back to original, or have a Certificate of Authenticity issued for the car - contact us and we can help. @lincolnAMG Thank you for taking good care of the car and bringing it back to life, and it is great to see the enthusiasm for this future classic. Team RENNtech$11,250 bid placed by @pizzavino1
$11,000 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
$10,750 bid placed by @pizzavino1
$10,500 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
$9,750 bid placed by @jeffkraemer
$9,500 bid placed by @pizzavino1
$9,250 bid placed by @jeffkraemer
We are down to the final few hours. If you have any last minute questions, I'll be checking this site off-and-on all afternoon. Convertible, manual transmission, 260hp, and feels like a go-kart...this car has been a blast to drive and after five years it is time for a new owner. Keep in mind that the car is selling No Reserve. I cannot wait to see who the new owner will be.@ProdigalPetrolHead That's an interesting thought if they are compatible. An upgraded seat would be nice. Of course if you want support for spirited driving, you always have the racing harnesses! I've driven the car a few times using the harnesses and you are completely locked in.@LincolnAMG I've been thinking SLK32 seats would just drop in if it comes to seat repair. You could still get the red centers.@Jtciii Instead of repairing the seat, the approach I considered was to find a replacement seat bottom on eBay. The Salsa interior was popular enough that seats from crashed cars periodically come up. The cost is probably around $200 for just the bottom cushion. Since the seat felt fine, I decided to keep the seats all original.@Jtciii I would estimate a 0-60 time around 5.5 seconds. Two magazines tested a 2.3L RENNTech SLK with an auto transmission and got 5.9 and 6.1 seconds. This car is clearly faster with the larger engine (20 more hp and more torque) and manual transmission. It should be on par with an early Porsche Boxster S, except it has more low-end torque thanks to the supercharger. The quarter-mile time is going to be around 14 seconds.Just curious, when you were doing other renovations if you got an estimate on repairing the seat bolster and tear.Curious if you estimate performance in 0-60 and/or quarter mile times?I'm so blessed to live in FL where no front tag is needed. This little rocket would look SO much better without it 😀@scottiebenz Thank you for the comment on the interior. When I bought the car it had the typical issue for these cars of the soft paint flaking off. The panels were solid though, which as you point out is not often found since the build quality back then was so-so thanks to Mercedes learning from Chrysler how to do high volume manufacturing. I redid the red parts of the interior and used hard paint on the dash and center console. The hard paint looks really good and has none of the soft paint issues, although the texture is obviously different. The seats are original and have some cracking in the driver bottom cushion, otherwise they are holding up well.I would like to add, in addition to what's been said, that you can clearly see the RENNtech suspension links. Those links, Konis, and stainless brake lines were all very popular RENNtech upgrades. I spoke with Hartmut and all of the upgrades appear legit. RENNtech did one or two 2.5L M111 conversions. Unfortunately, records before 2006 are fairly disorganized.@apollo13 Note the valve cover has been painted in RENNtech's signature color with black plastic trim, rather than the factory light gray with red trim, so engine is not completely unchanged. Subtle detail and not concrete, but would indicate the engine had been altered at RT. This car must be a blast to drive, even a factory 5speed SLK230 is fun, but upgraded engine and suspension would be something else. I'm personally not a huge fan of the aesthetics of R170's but this one looks fantastic. That body trim and BBS's make such a huge difference on this chassis. And the interior of it looks like it's been well cared for; the plastic panels are prone to cracking and falling apart.$9,000 bid placed by @pizzavino1
$8,500 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
@LincolnAMG Good enough for me! @apollo13 You'll have even more fun when you're shopping for a pre-merger AMG car.@LincolnAMG thank you for such a detailed answer, but unfortunately you still haven't provided any evidence that this is a real RENNtech. "People say" is not evidence. Considering that there are a lot of inconsistencies, even in your stories, I will skip this car, because it looks more like a custom project based on the SLK, rather than a car actually built in a famous tuning shop. Absolutely any famous tuning shops provides at least a CertificateHi @apollo13 and thank you for your skepticism. The original RENNTech invoice is dated March 1999 and was sent to the first owner in Princeton, NJ. The exact address has been covered up for privacy, but will come uncovered in the records to the next owner. According to CarFax, the car's title was issued in March 1999 in Princeton, NJ. I'm sure this is not a coincidence. In addition, multiple people have confirmed knowing the car in its past and validated that it was done by RENNTech, including Hartmut Feyhl, the founder of RENNTech. I still have the original RENNTech exhaust if that helps with further confirmation of the originality, although there is a hole in the bottom of the muffler which is why it was replaced. I will include the original exhaust in the sale if someone wants to try and patch it and try to use it again. What stickers and plates are you referring to? The rear badge on the trunk is an original RENNTech badge. There was a sticker/plate on the engine originally, but the adhesive came undone and it fell off at some point while driving the car. I'm happy to include a picture of the engine from five years ago with the sticker if that helps. There is an open question if the rear brake calipers are original or not. The original order called for rear Alcons. I asked the folks at RENNTech Classic if they had replacement Alcons and they thought that the rear Alcons may not have fit on this car, so the Brembos might be what was put on by them. All of the RENNTech SLKs that appeared in magazines back in the day had stock rear brakes, so it is hard to know what exactly was used on this specific car.Do you have any real evidence that this car was made in RENNtech? Because there is absolutely no information about this car on the invoice, which is also very unclear if you combine it with what is visible: the engine is unchanged, the brake calipers are different on the front and rear axles. And absolutely no photos of stickers or plates, which is not typical of RENNtech at all. Perhaps this car was assembled somewhere on the basis of a skirt and front brakes from Rentech, maybe something was changed with the suspension and exhaust, but this does not look like a real RENNtech.$7,500 bid placed by @MRDCB
$5,000 bid placed by @ProdigalPetrolHead
Hello everyone and welcome to my auction for this go-kart of an SLK. I found this car five years ago thanks to a post on MB Market in the pre-auction days. The car had very solid bones, but had been neglected for awhile. I'm a big pre-merger AMG and RENNTech fan and took this on as a project. The goal was to bring it to a high driver-quality level. The mechanical work was done by a well established independent Mercedes shop in the Boston area. The cosmetic work was mostly done by me. We tried to use parts exactly how RENNTech did the original build. The only thing I was not able to source was a RENNTech muffler. The Supersprint muffler on the car is the closest I could find and it sounds really good! The factory interior paint has a soft texture and is known for flaking off at the slightest touch. When the interior dash and center console were repainted I used a hard paint that has proper durability. I have thoroughly enjoyed the car for the past five years as a fun warm-weather driver. I'm excited for this manual transmission RENNTech to find a new enthusiast owner and as such, it is selling at No Reserve. If you have any questions about the car, please ask!$3,250 bid placed by @Stuttgart_Steel
I was wondering when your SLK would pop up.$3,000 bid placed by @amusicianslife
Words cannot describe how jealous I am of the next owner. I want this thing so bad. I can't currently add another car to the stable so I'll have to just sit back and watch. I can't even believe this thing exists.$1,357 bid placed by @Lfuselier