Happy Birthday! The Banana Turns 18

Just a quick post that The Banana was delivered on 14 March 2005, making today its 18th birthday.

Banana Update

It’s been awhile since I posted, but I’ve really been enjoying driving the Banana, and it even got featured on Bring A Trailer.

The only maintenance things I’ve done since getting it back at the end of September was to replace the rear accessory battery. Even keeping it on the CTek charger it would complain that convenience features were not available, but since replacing the battery (which had a 2015 date code) the car has been running great.

Finally!

Last week I received the notarized title back from the seller and today we were able to get The Banana registered in North Carolina.

Whew.

It will be a few weeks before the personalized plate arrives but I was able to really drive it for the first time today. I took it through the country “loop” I like and it handled well. The battery is complaining because it sat so long but all the malfunctions cleared by the time my ride was done. I had the same issue with The Shark when I got it, and I’m hoping it will be the same with this car.

Matchbox “Superfast” Yellow SL55 AMG

I find it amusing that Mercedes never offered yellow exterior paint on any R230 as a standard color option, but that Matchbox made a yellow SL55 AMG.

It was a limited edition of only 15,500 units, so I’m sure this will be worth something someday (grin)

Reading the Documentation

The Banana came with some of the previous owner’s documentation. There were service records from about 2014, and records of the original purchase, but nothing much about the first ten years of service.

The car was purchased by an (apparently) very successful Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. He seems to have collected a number of classic cars, including an 300SL gullwing, but he sold it and bought a different one because the first one was too nice to drive.

Sending the Title Back (sigh)

So, I’ve given up on getting any kind of answer out of NC DMV as to why they won’t accept the title for The Banana without a notarized signature, so it is on its way back to California.

You Can’t Fight the DMV

The Banana is supposed to arrive tonight, so I wanted to go get it registered and get a tag for it.

It was not to be.

The seller had sent me the title and usually it is a simple process to register the car, but when I got to the DMV they wouldn’t accept it as it wasn’t notarized.

There was a space for a notary to sign that was blank, so I reached out to the seller who pointed out that in Montana, where the car was registered, a notary is not required if the seller is a company (in this case, an LLC).