Welcome! I can totally relate, having an 88 260E in a similar color. Mine is signal red which is probably best described as tomato red. Yours is more like a fire engine red. Here's mine wearing its winter tires and wheel covers. It hasn't seen wax in over a year due to having two small kids:
http://bos-engel.com/benz/steelies.jpg
As for longevity, I've been told that the M103 bottom end is good for 250k miles. Since the M104 in your car is quite similar the same estimate is probably good. The head has to be overhauled at about 100k or so.
Last year there was a forum member from the Chicago area selling a pristine red 93 coupe. Beautiful car with only about 70k miles but I'm scared or the ASR system. Still, it was spectacular.