The SL (R107) variant was a 2-seat convertible/roadster with standard soft-top, with optional winter hardtop and only rarely ordered very small rear bench-seat.

At this time, the V8 engines were re-tuned for greater efficiency, lost a few horsepower and consumed less fuel, largely due to substantially higher (numerically lower) axle ratios that went from 3.27:1 to 2.47:1 for the 380SL and from 2.72:1 to 2.27:1 for the 500SL.

The final car of the 18 years running 107 series was a 500SL painted Signal Red, built on 4 August 1989; it currently resides in the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

North America was the key market for this Personal luxury car, and two thirds of R107 and C107 production was sold there.

[5] The R107/C107 for the North American market sported four round low-output sealed beam headlights, due to unique U.S. regulations.

R107 and C107 cars were exported to the US with low compression 4.5 liter V8 engines to meet stringent US emissions requirements, yet still provide adequate power.

From 1974, the front and rear bumpers were dramatically lengthened, by 8 inches (203 mm) on each end, to comply with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulations that mandated no damage at an impact of 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h).

[6] North American market SL and SLC models retained the protruding 5 mph bumpers, even after the wisdom of the law was reconsidered in 1981.

Starting in 1980, US cars were equipped with lambda control, which varied the air/fuel mixture based on feedback from an oxygen sensor.

This drove many customers to obtain the European specification car in the "gray market," where the vehicles were converted to meet Federal mandates, until this option was eliminated by Congress in 1988.

Despite the larger 5.6 liter engine of the U.S. 560SL, the forbidden Euro-spec 500SL was the fastest production R107 produced (mostly because of the lack of emission reducing components).

Model years 1975 and 1976 for the 450SL suffered from vapor lock and hard restart because of the under-bonnet position of the catalytic converter.

Based on a servo which controlled coolant flow to the heater core, as well as vacuum to actuate the vents in the interior of the car, the system proved unreliable.

Tier 1 includes: Combustion chambers and conduits of both cylinder heads were reworked and polished, two AMG camshafts.

In 1978 the factory prepared two examples for the one-off Vuelta a la América del Sur, a month-long event of some 7,000 kilometres in length that took the competitors from Buenos Aires and back via Rio, Manaus, Caracas, Bogota, Lima, La Paz, Santiago and Ushuaia.

The car driven by Andrew Cowan and Colin Malkin won by 20 minutes from team-mates Sobiesław Zasada and Andrzej Zembrzuski.

[13] An Albert Pfuhl proceeded to buy all six cars, equipment, and spare parts from the works team.

Pfuhl and his team built a series of cars to compete in the 1984 Paris–Dakar Rally with a white and blue "BOSS" livery.