The E60's the daddy in my opinion.....monster of a car and far far better built than any Merc made today.
These were handbuilt over 18 days, (as were the E500 W124's), by Porsche and final assembly was done by Mercedes and they all have a legendary build quality. The E60's were then sent across to AMG for all of the AMG bits, like having the engine bored out to 6.0's and AMG suspension etc.
Mercedes sub-contracted out all of the development work on the E500's when the idea of building it was first thought of and they subsequently got the contract to build most of it as it could not be built on the standard W124 production line....hence the reason why most of the build on the car was done by hand. Only 10,000 odd E500's were built for worldwide consumption.
The complete front end is different to a standard W124 with a wider front track, enlarged engine bay. They also run on SL front suspension and brakes and have self levelling hydraulic rear suspension and a limited slip diff.
Even compared to today's E500, the W124 E500 has more power with 326bhp and @ 340lb torque, whereas the current E500 has 302bhp and is heavier. The performance is pretty impressive, especially as the car is such a wolf in sheeps clothing. Having driven a mates car through Germany back in the mid 90's the performance of the car still lingers in my mind, as does the way the car sat rock solid on the autobahn at speeds in excess of 125mph....I can only but wonder what an E60 must feel like
I would not be put off by the car having done 100,000 miles.....thats still a low mileage for one of these engines. They are very under stressed as per all other M119 v8's.
As for the price, its not outrageous for such a rare car with this level of performance, especially when you consider that getting a good E500 W124 with similar mileage costs @ £10,000
Absolute cult car, as is the E500, especially in Japan, where a decent E60 will set you back in excess of £25k and an E500 @ £16k
Sounds like a business opportunity!
