San Francisco Street Sighting - 1968 Mercedes-Benz 250SL

Mercedes-Benz is known primarily for its luxury sedans, which tend to be rather big and heavy and built like a bank vault. Even the SL roadsters are usually on the weighty side despite their "Sport Leicht" (Sport Light) nomenclature. They weren't always uber-huge though. The name first came about in 1954 with the introduction of the 190 and 300SL roadster and "Gullwing" coupe. They really were pretty lightweight in their own right, especially the coupe with aluminum sheetmetal. In 1963 an all-new SL was introduced, codenamed W113. It featured a 2.3 liter inline-six engine and was called the 230SL.

San Francisco Street Sighting: 1987 Sterling 825 SL

What looks like a Japanese car, runs like a Japanese car, but feels like a British car and rusts and breaks like a British car? Well, if you live in the US, chances are the car is a Sterling. Europe knows this car as the Rover 800, a car which, under the skin, is basically an Acura Legend. The engineering was done by Honda, with the platform and powertrain built to last. Everything else was done by Austin Rover, a fact which pretty much doomed the Sterling.