FOUR classic Mercedes cars - dating back to the early 1960s and collectively worth about half a million pounds - went on display at Mercedes-Benz of York at the weekend.

Three of the SL Pagodas had been driven across to Britain for an annual gathering by their owners from Germany , while the fourth belonged to a man from Newcastle, Mike Smith, all of them members of a Pagoda offshoot of the Mercedes-Benz owners club.

Nick Coyle, managing director of Mercedes-Benz in North Yorkshire, said Mike had asked if they could put the cars in safe storage at the dealership at Clifton Moor while they all visited the city centre.

He said everyone walking past had been stopped in their tracks by the line-up of vehicles, which were manufactured as a rival to the E-type Jag in 1962. Sadly, the weekend weather in York was not ideal for the convertible cars.