Mercedes-Benz and AMG signed a co-operation agreement in 1990, enabling the famed Affalterbach firm to have its enhanced models offered to customers at marque showrooms three years before the two companies formally merged. While the R129-generation SL was the first car in the Three-Pointed Star’s line-up to be available with an official AMG version, a short supply of uprated 500 SLs were produced during those intervening years.

As the model name suggests, the pre-merger 500 SL 6.0s by AMG had their 5.0-litre V-8s make way for a 6.0-litre version of the M119 unit, which increased power from 322 to 375 horsepower. Further enhancements include the fitment of a more aggressive body kit featuring a ducktail rear spoiler, three-piece AMG wheels by OZ Racing, glossy wood interior trim, and AMG-branded instruments.

From the small pool of 500 SL 6.0 AMGs built, this car was ordered new via a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Schweinfurt. Specification information, available to view on file, indicates that it was completed in July 1990, finished in Blue-Black Metallic over a Black leather interior. It was then registered in Japan in December, with the intervening months pointing to the period in which the car was modified by AMG. Although its complete history is not definitively known, a stamp in the universal service book records a visit to the Sven Junge workshop in Kauern, Germany in February 2016—when the odometer was noted at 74,343 kilometres.

Sparingly driven since as part of The Willy Michiels Collection in Belgium, this special pre-merger AMG displayed 77,468 kilometres at the time of cataloguing. It is sure to pique the interest of Mercedes-Benz fanatics the world over.