SandyKelly
New Member
Hi, and thank you for welcoming me to this wonderful and encyclopaedic site.
I have been using the knowledge within for some years now and feel that I really should participate rather than just be a taker! Forgive me - I have legged it to Australia, where cars (and almost everything else) cost the earth.
All my life, and I've been around for six decades, I have been privileged to have been around Merc's. My Father sold his Talbot 90 to buy a green 220 in 1956 when it was the only car that passed him on the Autobahn when we went to Italy on holiday. That car was replaced by a grey W112 220SE that was his pride and joy. By this time, he and Eugene Heresen of Callanders in Glasgow had become friends, or at least they were friends until a car deal had them arguing, but they soon made up!! His 220SE was changed for a gorgeous metallic green W112 300SE Coupe in 1965. It was a real head turner. He kept that car for many years. He bought a Grosser 600 in 1966. Midnight blue with pale grey interior. What a machine. It would burn off E types at the lights and the service from Mercedes in London was sensational. For some bizarre reason, he traded the 600 and a homologation 911S against a Silver Shadow 2-door Coupe (war became the Corniche in later models). Every time he drove the RR, he would mutter darkly that "it's no Mercedes!!". I was living in Canada in late 79 or 80 when I was asked to come home in a hurry as my Dad was critically ill and not expected to pull through. Whilst I was putting his affairs in order, Eugene Heresen phoned to say that my Dad's W126 500SEL had arrived. It was a stunner. Midnight Blue with white leather, reclining rear seat, ABS - the works! He had ordered the car without letting anyone in the family know. I went into intensive care to see him that afternoon and told him that his new car had arrived. He made little response, but later that evening, the doctors said that he was showing a marked improvement and a week later he was making my life misery by chopping and changing his mind as to the personal plate he wanted on the car. I picked him up from hospital in it, and we were pulled over by the cops. They said that the number was registered to a Land Rover. I explained the situation and they got onto their radio. Ten minutes later they came back and said they hadn't a clue what the car's number should be, but there was a valid tax disk that matched the plates so we were to be on our way - agh, those were the days when traffic cops showed initiative and were not revenue collectors!!(at least here!!)
In between times my Mother had a bronze 230SL, followed by a green 280SL, a blue 350SL, a brown 450SLC and finally a strange shade of green 450SLC that she kept for 20 years and left to my sister in Scotland, who is restoring it.
I never had my Father's knack for making money, and it wasn't until I was working in Dubai did I get my own - a Blue Black metallic W124 300TE. I spent weeks driving around fixated by the star on the bonnet, never mind the burgeoning glamour of Dubai in the 90's. I bought my wife of the time a smoke silver W202 C200. The C never floated my boat; it was nice, but didn't have the edge that the E had.
After the Middle East, my wife and I went our separate ways, she with the C, on which she put 500,000kms before scrapping it - it was beginning to cost her too much, apparently. No sense of loyalty, eh?http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/images/smilies/fail.gif
I was CEO of a fast ferry company in the Far East for a number of years, and Pajero's were my rides at that time. The vessels all had MTU engines, so I was heavily involved with the D-B group. I heard all sorts of dire tales of the W210 compared to the W124, none at all encouraging, but time marches on
and when I set up my business here in Australia, I bought a 1997 smoke silver W210 E320, with black interior. It was solid but needed a damned good clean. The car has been a great workhorse. I bought it because I love in-line sixes, and the turbine like howl from that car is truly delicious. I particularly like when she comes on the cam, and then shortly after the air flow through the cylinders give her the "turbocharged" feel and a kick in the back at speeds that the fun police would have seizures about!
I was delighted with the car, and felt that with the children growing up and maturity setting in (bull! I needed to have a car that didn't have my beloved's reggie on, and that I could be naughty with!!) I bought an Iridium Silver 1999 E430 with grey interior. I think that I have fallen in love with V8's all over again!! The 430 has arrived with low mileage (for Aus - 115,000km) but has an awful lot of leaks. So far, I have changed the rocker cover gaskets, the crankshaft rear seal, the gearbox seals including the inhibitor cable seal. The leakages are dwindling away, but the silky smoothness of that engine and the look on the faces of Falcon and Commodore drivers as this grey haired old fella leaves tham a clean pair of heels. The turbine like smoothness is only matched by the power delivery of my Triumph Rocket III.
I think that I am a lost cause. I love my Mercs, forgive their every foible an long for the day when I can own a CL65 (Sorry, S65 Coupe!!)
For the record, I am an engineer, specialising in diesels and marine power plants, currently involved in sustainables and running diesels on a variety of plant and animal oils.
Regards to all, especially you, kind sir, that read all of this!!
I have been using the knowledge within for some years now and feel that I really should participate rather than just be a taker! Forgive me - I have legged it to Australia, where cars (and almost everything else) cost the earth.
All my life, and I've been around for six decades, I have been privileged to have been around Merc's. My Father sold his Talbot 90 to buy a green 220 in 1956 when it was the only car that passed him on the Autobahn when we went to Italy on holiday. That car was replaced by a grey W112 220SE that was his pride and joy. By this time, he and Eugene Heresen of Callanders in Glasgow had become friends, or at least they were friends until a car deal had them arguing, but they soon made up!! His 220SE was changed for a gorgeous metallic green W112 300SE Coupe in 1965. It was a real head turner. He kept that car for many years. He bought a Grosser 600 in 1966. Midnight blue with pale grey interior. What a machine. It would burn off E types at the lights and the service from Mercedes in London was sensational. For some bizarre reason, he traded the 600 and a homologation 911S against a Silver Shadow 2-door Coupe (war became the Corniche in later models). Every time he drove the RR, he would mutter darkly that "it's no Mercedes!!". I was living in Canada in late 79 or 80 when I was asked to come home in a hurry as my Dad was critically ill and not expected to pull through. Whilst I was putting his affairs in order, Eugene Heresen phoned to say that my Dad's W126 500SEL had arrived. It was a stunner. Midnight Blue with white leather, reclining rear seat, ABS - the works! He had ordered the car without letting anyone in the family know. I went into intensive care to see him that afternoon and told him that his new car had arrived. He made little response, but later that evening, the doctors said that he was showing a marked improvement and a week later he was making my life misery by chopping and changing his mind as to the personal plate he wanted on the car. I picked him up from hospital in it, and we were pulled over by the cops. They said that the number was registered to a Land Rover. I explained the situation and they got onto their radio. Ten minutes later they came back and said they hadn't a clue what the car's number should be, but there was a valid tax disk that matched the plates so we were to be on our way - agh, those were the days when traffic cops showed initiative and were not revenue collectors!!(at least here!!)
In between times my Mother had a bronze 230SL, followed by a green 280SL, a blue 350SL, a brown 450SLC and finally a strange shade of green 450SLC that she kept for 20 years and left to my sister in Scotland, who is restoring it.
I never had my Father's knack for making money, and it wasn't until I was working in Dubai did I get my own - a Blue Black metallic W124 300TE. I spent weeks driving around fixated by the star on the bonnet, never mind the burgeoning glamour of Dubai in the 90's. I bought my wife of the time a smoke silver W202 C200. The C never floated my boat; it was nice, but didn't have the edge that the E had.
After the Middle East, my wife and I went our separate ways, she with the C, on which she put 500,000kms before scrapping it - it was beginning to cost her too much, apparently. No sense of loyalty, eh?http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/images/smilies/fail.gif
I was CEO of a fast ferry company in the Far East for a number of years, and Pajero's were my rides at that time. The vessels all had MTU engines, so I was heavily involved with the D-B group. I heard all sorts of dire tales of the W210 compared to the W124, none at all encouraging, but time marches on
and when I set up my business here in Australia, I bought a 1997 smoke silver W210 E320, with black interior. It was solid but needed a damned good clean. The car has been a great workhorse. I bought it because I love in-line sixes, and the turbine like howl from that car is truly delicious. I particularly like when she comes on the cam, and then shortly after the air flow through the cylinders give her the "turbocharged" feel and a kick in the back at speeds that the fun police would have seizures about!
I was delighted with the car, and felt that with the children growing up and maturity setting in (bull! I needed to have a car that didn't have my beloved's reggie on, and that I could be naughty with!!) I bought an Iridium Silver 1999 E430 with grey interior. I think that I have fallen in love with V8's all over again!! The 430 has arrived with low mileage (for Aus - 115,000km) but has an awful lot of leaks. So far, I have changed the rocker cover gaskets, the crankshaft rear seal, the gearbox seals including the inhibitor cable seal. The leakages are dwindling away, but the silky smoothness of that engine and the look on the faces of Falcon and Commodore drivers as this grey haired old fella leaves tham a clean pair of heels. The turbine like smoothness is only matched by the power delivery of my Triumph Rocket III.
I think that I am a lost cause. I love my Mercs, forgive their every foible an long for the day when I can own a CL65 (Sorry, S65 Coupe!!)
For the record, I am an engineer, specialising in diesels and marine power plants, currently involved in sustainables and running diesels on a variety of plant and animal oils.
Regards to all, especially you, kind sir, that read all of this!!
