Monkey see, monkey do. After Sajeev’s outstanding 300SL review I felt compelled to write on the vintage Benzo tip, yo. This car isn’t restored to anything like the condition of Mr. Mehta’s tester, but then again, I’d have felt bad going two-off during public-road driving in a half-million-dollar car…
My pal “The Berg” is a twenty-something Mercedes-Benz repairman whose resume includes stints at Merrill Lynch and some kind of career as a Division 1-A tennis player. He rebuilt my 190E 2.3-16 for the 2005 One Lap of America and is forever coming up with odd vehicles, many of which (Bentley T1, six-cylinder Jag XJR) you will see in future Capsule Reviews. A while ago, he arrived at my house with a pair of hi-po sedans — this and a C43 AMG. I’ve never quite sure why he buys them or how he sells them, but some things are better off left unexamined.
The story of the 300SEL 6.3 is too long and varied to fit in a Capsule Review, but it was effectively the first German super-sedan and set the template that persists to the modern day. The legend of the 6.3 “big-body Benz” is so powerful that the current 6.2-liter S-class is called the S63. What a surprise, then, to find out that this big Benz isn’t really all that big. It’s approximately the same size and weight as an Acura TL with all-wheel-drive and develops less rated horsepower than the beak-mobile. Torque is a different story, of course, and this is a car that operates on torque.
I didn’t believe Berg when he said the car was a four-speed automatic, but it really does have that “extra” forward gear. Unfortunately, even with a mechanical overhaul the driveline isn’t nearly as good as a GM three-speed from the same era. Shifts are both harsh and long in coming. The “kickdown” is particularly offensive; plan a good three seconds ahead if you really think you’ll need that lower gear.
Most of the time you won’t, however. The 6.3 V8 shoves the car along with an insouciant grace, nearly silent beneath the long bonnet and easily propelling the S-Klasse to back-road velocities for which the chassis is completely unprepared. The brakes were excellent for the era but they are terrifying in the modern day, with power assistance that seems completely arbitrary and stopping distances that vary from corner to corner. There’s a short test loop near my house with a marked 35mph corner. Most modern performance cars are completely happy at 65-75mph through it, but the 6.3 punished my 55-mph entry with a four-foot-wide exit onto the grass. I was able to stay on the power and swing the bus-sized wheel around, but for a moment I was not completely certain we’d stay upright.
It’s hard to feel where the tires begin to lose their grip – there’s just so much dignity built into the steering. Also the air suspension on this particular car was prone to letting the body slump a bit in protest when the slow-speed cornering loads became offensively high. Still, the 6.3 retains its forged-from-a-single-piece feel on the move, even through faster turns. In place of electronic stability control, the big Benz substitutes extremely stable and slow steering and suspension geometry. It’s clearly tuned for a 140mph run on the autobahn.
The performance discrepancy enjoyed by the contemporaneous 300SEL 6.3 owner would have been almost Veyron-esque. The average family sedan in Germany today is easily capable of 120-130mph, but the average family sedan in Germany forty years ago would have strained to reach 80. Even the Porsche 911 of the day wouldn’t break 130 in most variants. I’m not certain the big Benz had any actual competition. The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was larger, better-appointed, and more comfortable, but it wouldn’t have been able to touch the Benz when the ‘bahn straightened out.
I noted earlier that this is an Acura-sized car, but if you’re expecting the cramped, crappy interior of a TL, forget it. This car comes from an era of no tumblehome and doors that are closer to five inches thick than the solid 8-10 inches seen in modern cars. Interior space is much closer to what you would find in a modern S-Class. The controls are all thin, chrome-plated, but surprisingly solid. There’s no COMAND to distract the driver. The wood is thick enough to “thunk” when it’s tapped, and it’s simply grained. If you happen to own a Maybach, this interior will depress you; it’s clearly more expensive to source and assemble than yours was.
I cannot help but think that the feckless W210 E-Class W220 S-Class never would have been foisted onto an unsuspecting world if the engineers who designed them had been forced to drive one of these old 300SELs around once a week. This is what a Mercedes-Benz should be. The tagline “Engineered like no other car in the world” was probably always a lie, but it never approached truth more closely than it did upon this automobile’s release.
When one thinks of the bond traders, professional athletes, and house-whores who drive the S-Class in our modern era, it’s easy to understand why Mercedes-Benz doesn’t want to make the effort. The 300SEL was too good for those people. It deserves to be driven by a former Wehrmacht officer biltzing down the left lane to Bonn, a briefcase full of aggressive business plans and obscure technical details by his side, a steely determination evident in the set of his jaw and the confident flick of his high beams. Although I inquired to the Berg about the potential cost of keeping the 6.3 in my driveway, I know the truth: I don’t deserve this car, either.
Fantastic car and wonderful review. This is exactly the sort car you want to borrow for a boot around the block but perhaps not own – I’ve seen some of the running costs on these and its eye watering. Glad to see someone can support one.
Don’t flame me with a rant about safety features, when I say: “They don’t make ’em like they used to.” This is the car I’m talking about. 6.3ltr Benzes, big block Cadillacs, most of the 60s and 70s felt like an era when the worlds major automotive players were trying to out-engineer each other.
I know all modern automakers employ world class engineers, but they need to give them more free reign, price be damned. Modern versions of this Benz Super-sedan need to be built as flagships by every manufacturer, at a low volume, buyers can be found.
The problem is, Toyota, via Lexus, found out how to make a car 95% as good as this (or maybe not this, but perhaps the V8) for 50% of the cost. I wish cost was no object, but the truth is that it isn’t, not until you’re in Phantom or Veyron territory, and even then…
The LS400 killed the Mercedes of that era. Or rather, the Mercedes of that era was a walking corpse, killed by cost-control problems, and it was Toyota that finally blew it’s zombified head off.
To it, and possibly the industry’s, detriment, Mercedes tried to compete with Lexus on cost while refusing to acknowledge that they really had no idea how to do it. Had they admitted they had cost and quality problems or said “screw it, we’re not going to fight the LS400 on cost”, they might be the German Rolls today.
Which is sad and ironic, considering Rolls is owned by BMW.
There’s no need to flame: these 60s Mercedes-Benz sedans pioneered the safety features we take for granted today. Crumple zones, a safe escape path for the engine block, an all-around focus on limiting intrusion into passenger space.
Surely this Benz is fine car, but, well, it’s all relative in a sense. I mean it is not going to take a lot to beat the level of “refinement” found on today’s Acuras. Hell, if you can hear panels squeak on a brand-new top of the line Lexus, what can you really expect from a sorry-a$$ TL?
Although I need a bit more elaboration on this term “house-whores”… it’s priceless.
I’ve read in other sites that keeping one of this cars is Expensive. And they’re maintenance intensive.
Does this one have the pneumatic operated windows and door closing? Or is it the limo?
Edit: Is it me or that intake is not stock. Is there a turbo or superchager hooked to that motor? Are you guys insane *waits for a positive answer*
Spain has just won the world cup.
Stingray,
That’s the 600 and 600 Pullman. Back in the Nineties, M-B quoted dealers just over $15,000 to replace the power window system, parts only.
Thanks. When I read that (long time ago) I just started to guess how those @#$%& did to crate such thing.
Those cars make the modern ones look like the PC cost reduced pussies they are. Like most things today.
Stingray – thanks for ruining my watching of the World Cup on my PVR. Can you explain why you felt the need to post that completely irrelevant spoiler in a thread about a legendary motorcar?
I know enough to avoid any news or sports site, but didn’t think someone on TTAC would be so uncouth as to post the result here. Please edit your post to remove the result and avoid ruining the outcome for others who may have not watched the game.
@Mark
do you like black ninja movies? :-D
p.s. yes yes, for some my comment might not make sense, but
for those who’ve seen *things* all will be clear
@Mark: You’ve got to be kidding. It’s a bit much to expect everyone everywhere to censor their speech for “spoilers”. Games are history the moment they’re over, and people will talk about such history.
But back on topic, I *love* the Mercedes of this vintage. Nearly fell for a slightly ratty 1972 280 4.5 liter recently, but the repair costs scared me off it.
Built for a time where there were other priorities.
Today, manufacturers have to meet pollution requirements, gas consumption can be ignored if the guzzler tax is paid. Of course, the user must pay the gas bill for continued use. I’m looking towards the District of Control for further advice…
(GM made some of the best automatic transmissions in the world until the 70’s, now they can’t engineer a 6-speed FWD tranny without sharing the development costs with one of their competitors (Ford) – sad commentary of GM).
(GM made some of the best automatic transmissions in the world until the 70’s, now they can’t engineer a 6-speed FWD tranny without sharing the development costs with one of their competitors (Ford) – sad commentary of GM.)
+100 Thinking of this super sedan made me recall (for some reason) that for years Rolls Royce used Turbo-Hydramatics for years in their cars.
But pollution requirements do not exclude manufacturers from building powerful engines and a car built to standard regardless of cost the end user would not care about the gas guzzler penalty.
Nice car and great review. I couldn’t afford maintaining the air suspension, so opted for my 1972 280 SEL 4.5 with the spring suspension.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/two2tone/1973%20280SEL%204%205/MVC-002F.jpg
Twotone
“It deserves to be driven by a former Wehrmacht officer biltzing down the left lane to Bonn, a briefcase full of aggressive business plans and obscure technical details by his side, a steely determination evident in the set of his jaw and the confident flick of his high beams. ”
Loved that line. My late father-in-law’s best friend was a fellow engineer from Munich (Eugene – died two days after Frank). He freely admitted having learned to drive on a PZKWIII and served on Rommel’s staff in the Afrika Korps. Yes, he had a 300SEL sedan. According to my mother-in-law, trips thru Germany with this gentleman and his wife were not unlike actions against the British at Tobruk. She was terrified to ride with him.
Another great review Jack.
I’d love to have one of these but the maintenance costs of that pneumatic suspension scare the crap out of me. Plus I have a house rule of no more than one german car out of warrant at a time ;)
This review really needed an audio clip.
And what is the average maintenance cost on one of these things? Around 6K a year? More/less?
There is no such thing as “average” for a car like this. A car that is up-to-date in maintenance and driven sparingly will cost very little to run. One that has been neglected will bankrupt you. The nice thing about these is that there is nothing on them that cannot be fixed by a reasonably talented home mechanic. By modern standards, they are very simple cars. The complexity is that they have a lot of parts. But most everything is available, you just may need smelling salts when MB gives you the price…
It seems to me that since this car predates the use of computers in vehicles, that one could probably mock up a lot of the parts without having to pay exorbitant costs for the official ones.
For examples, the pneumatic windows used the the 600 – what would stop someone from just buying some hosing, an air compressor, some electrical switches, and maybe some regulators off the shelf and replacing the system with a homebrew one? If authenticity is the ultimate goal then re-doing systems might kick you off the show circuit, and it would likely take a lot of time and tinkering to get it working right, but it seems that someone with a little bit of engineering know-how could recreate a lot of systems with modern parts for not too much money.
I definitely think Jack needs to buy the 6.3 and give us periodic updates on the ownership experience.
Kind of like what Edmunds did with a Ferrari 308GTSi, only with better writing.
That’s what I would think Nullo. Yes (for example) the 300SEL 6.3 is a historically significant car, but the main attraction is the engine. From everything I’ve been able to find online about these cars (yes I’ve been idly doing that on this Sunday in July) is that the engine is pretty bullet proof as long as your not an idiot and do maintenance like you should. So the power windows go out. It’s not very luxurious to do it this way, but go the junk yard and find a Berlin Taxi Cab with crank windows and do the conversion. The engine is the reason to have the car.
Nullo,
The windows on the 6.3 are electric, just like the 4.5’s, so they’re reasonable. You’re thinking of the 600, and on the M100 they’re hydraulic, not pneumatic. Oil also powers the seat adjustment, HVAC flaps, trunk lid, sunroof, shock adjustment, and on the older cars, the door latches.
I learned a bit about Mercedes parts guys when I had my 230SL. It needed some brake work, and my service station guy couldn’t find some necessary O-rings. I went to the Mercedes dealer and asked the parts guy about them; when I explained where in the calipers the O-rings were, he got all excited, his German accent got thicker, and he ranted that “only at the factory are these to be disassembled!” So I went away, and on the way back up South Tacoma Way I thought of the hydraulic-cylinder shop where my contractor father did business. Stopped there, showed him the O-ring. He asked if I wanted it in neoprene or Buna-N, I said “Whatever works best with brake fluid.” Twenty minutes later my service station guy had the O-rings he needed.
That poor old 230SL had been through a lot, and there were a lot of things that needed to be fixed on it, but I don’t think any of them were beyond the ability of a competent mechanic. I never found out, because I couldn’t afford the money or the time, and sold the car in typical Pete Madsen fashion, at the very bottom of the market.
“It deserves to be driven by a former Wehrmacht officer blitzing down the left lane to Bonn, a briefcase full of aggressive business plans and obscure technical details by his side, a steely determination evident in the set of his jaw and the confident flick of his high beams.”
I did a lot of hitchhiking in Germany in the 70s and 80s. Here’s a fun fact: Drivers of S-Class Benzes were among the most likely to pick me up, second only to beaters with student drivers. On the other hand, I can’t remember a single BMW to stop for me.
General Motors still makes fine automatics….BMW uses them in their 328’s 128’s and 528’s.
They are not the standard of the world however like the incomparable Turbo Hydramatic 400 of the 70’s
thanks for this review. there is nothing i love more than vintage benzes
Great review.
This was literally the best sedan anybody could buy at any price 40 years ago.
That said, I would love to have one if I had the means to care for- and fuel it.
Do you know if the car that followed (the one with large horizontal headlamps) shared the platform with this one?
Here’s my 300 SEL 6.3 story:
In the summer of 1970, my family (mom, dad sisters and I) were the guests of Paul Marriott at his farm in Virginia. We were staying in his guest house (my dad did business with Marriott corp.) For five consecutive days he dropped by to visit, each time in a different new car. One of them was the 6.3 in which he took us for a very fast back-roads ride. My dad loved it. My mom, not so much. I agreed with my dad. The next day, Mr. Marriott drove up in his 2+2 E-type. He handed my dad the keys and I got to ride shotgun on another high-speed ride. The third day, it was the Silver Shadow. For some reason, we didn’t get to ride in the Roller. It might have been that we had been riding horses, at least that’s what I tell myself.
The Benz experience fixed itself in my dad’s mind. To him, it was the ultimate car. From that moment until he passed away, he talked about it and how he wanted a Benz. I often wonder at that considering he lived through the occupation of Denmark and barely escaped his brush with the Gestapo. Perhaps that was the real reason he never bought one considering he could have easily done so. Instead he made do with Plymouths.
Is this the Benz that all the dictators drove?
Was Mobutu the guy who dropped it off at the shop before you got to test it?
Is an airstrike being called in on the Porsche-green S5 as we speak?
…
A lot of TL hating on these forums, eh? Not sure I would call its interior crappy.
Beautiful car.
A few years back, I won a ’68 250S on an Ebay auction – the only person more surprised than me was my wife. I had placed a (in my mind) ridiculously low bid on it, only to get an email about a week later that I was the winner.
It was at the opposite end of the S-class spectrum from the 6.3 – the weak 2.5L inline six and automatic made any forward progress a glacial affair. It had the plastic seats and no options. But wow, what a car. Once it got up to 55 MPH on the highway, it was a wonderful cruiser. And Jack’s right – on the outside it’s not big by today’s standards but the inside had tons of room.
I ended up selling it after owning it for only a couple of months. I didn’t really have a place for it, and between the very slow progress and some fairly severe damage that wasn’t apparent from pictures it just wasn’t a good candidate for a restore/keeper. But the old W108’s are definitely a great car. I’m thinking of getting another one, although I’ll probably avoid the 6.3 with all the expensive, high-maintenance parts. I hear it’s a pretty easy job to swap an American V8 into these, but I think I’d feel dirty even with the increased horsepower and reliability.
Don’t feel dirty. In my town I have seen some of the remaining ones (MB 280) with a Chevy I6 swap. I guess why they didn’t swap a SBC “tapa rayada” (referencing to the valve covers found in roller lifter SBC)
Here people will swap a Chevy powertrain into anything they can’t find or afford parts.
Last week I saw a 2.8 V6 swapped 86 Taurus in the classifieds. Complete with subframe and tranny. The engine bay looked surprisingly clean.
These air bags suspension one could swap springs for them and save alot of the griefs.
The maint is sure exp. In 83 I looked at one in Kitchener Ont. The asking price was 10k, but the maint was almost 10k for the past calendar yr.
At that point I didnt think thats the car i can afford to drive.
The 6.3 did have many stellar record, won a Vette at a drag race,
won Spa Franco-cmap 24 hrs, Macao.
I love 108/109s and currently have five – two daily drivers, a restoration project, and two parts cars. They are beautifully made, reasonably cheap and easy to work on (except maybe the complex 6.3), and despite the vintage look and feel have no problems keeping up with modern traffic.
I prefer the 250se/280se as daily drivers, they are noticeably more agile than the V8 cars and feel quicker than 4.5s at low speeds. The difference between a 280s and a 280se is astounding – fuel injection transforms the car. I agree that the steering is precise but has no feel, and the swing axles can become unnerving in high speed turns, particularly if the shocks and rear bushings are sub-optimal. The transmission does shift rough and crappy – although the non-torque converter cars are nice in traffic thanks to the engine braking automatic. Its possible to adjust the pressures and linkages to improve both the speed and timing of the shifts, making them behave in a far more pleasant and modern way – the factory settings are absolutely awful.
The power assist and braking performance in my cars seems very consistent – perhaps there was something wrong with the car you tested? At 40ish years old it can brake with 75% of the vehicles on the road, something very very few cars of that era can claim. Better brakes than my 1990 E30 BMW, or almost any mass market sedan from the 90s.
Comparing a 6.3 to a modern sport sedan is ridiculous. Even in its day it was more a powerful limo than a sporting car. A lighter, shorter, steel sprung 280se would have been more agile, and still would not have impressed measured against such a standard. No one buys one today looking for a twisty road rocket, you buy one so you can enjoy the quality and vintage look and feel while still having enough performance and reliability to use it in everyday traffic – to enjoy it as a car not a garage ornament.
And that is the end of my novel.
While you’re at it, could you please, please, please, make a capsule review of the M100 600? There’s no other car to top that one, a car of truly Baruthian proportions. I’ve long been a fan of Karl Middlehauve:
http://www.mbgrand600.com/
And his business of repairing, restoring and selling the 600’s. He manufactures his own revised head and fuel injection system, some of the cars are equipped with blowers. He looks to be in his eighties or thereabouts, I don’t even know if he’s still alive, so hasten quick while there’s a chance.
An interview and a test, is that too much to ask about?
“The Best or Nothing”
Back in its day, on the autobahn, I suppose it was the former.
> It deserves to be driven by a former Wehrmacht officer biltzing down the left lane to Bonn
Regardless of how good or bad this car is, are we talking about the same officer who kisses Hitler’s and Göring’s ass, gets beaten by the soviets into unconditional surrender and is directly responsible for at least 100 million human lives?
My uncle, when he worked in Germany for the CIA, drove a Jaguar Mark VII. But that was in 1951, before Mercedes had really gotten going again. By the time he was back in Bonn in the mid-60’s he was a bit older and drove a VW Bug.
I feel romanticizing a nazi officer enjoying himself on the autobahn with a top-tier luxobarge after WWII is in very poor taste. Those guys deserved to suffer the worst fates conceived by man not enjoy phenomenal automotive engineering.
I only have one question: Did opening the hood really stop the fan belt from spinning the fan like Farrago claimed it did? I always wondered if it was true and how they did that??
A former boss had one. When I rode in it I got the urge to conquer Poland.
@avvk: Just trolling around? Tugendbold, damischer…