You'll rub your eyes when you hear that the "Pagoda" celebrated its sixtieth birthday last spring. In fact, there's a stark contrast between the car's real age and its modern styling; place it alongside a 190 SL - the model it succeeded - and you'll get the impression that twenty years separate them. The car owes its timeless grace to the talent of French designer Paul Bracq, crowned by the slightly curved hard-top roof that earned it its nickname. With its generous glazing largely responsible for the overall elegance of its lines - unchanged in eight years of production - its relative compactness and the nobility of its six-cylinder engines, this fast, comfortable roadster has never ceased to belong to the elite of dream cars. The first 230s, with their 150 hp, were already the most brilliant synthesis of sportiness and the brand's trademark robustness, which determined a versatility of use unrivalled at the time. This is still true today...