Thanks Derek.
It was an earlier one than Koolvin used to have that I was after.
I think it was a W114 3.5 V8 I'm hankering after.
James , that picture does indeed show an early pre-facelift 'New Generation' model which might be a six cylinder W114 , but in the pictured car is a four cylinder W115 ( the main give away being the short back bumper - on the six cylinder models it wraps further round , on the 280 going all the way to the rear wheelarches , see my 280E below ; the 250 had a bumper which wrapped round but only halfway along the rear wing )
Unfortunately , there was no V8 factory offering in that bodyshell : the twin cam 2746cc M110 either with fuel injection in the 280E or without in the plain 280 was the top of the range ( besides the 280C/CE coupes ) .
If you wanted a V8 , you had to look to the older and larger W108/W109 range . Sadly , I am no expert on these models , having only owned one in my life and then for less than a year . I've never had a definitive answer as to what the difference was between the two ranges , which both look very similar and ran over much the same time frame ; there were various models available in different markets . Both series were developed from the Fintail models but with the fins removed so as to look less dated , the chassis and floorpans are very similar with many parts interchangeable and many dimensions retained . The main difference seemed to be that the W109 range was based around the older 2996 cc engine carried forward from the 300SL Gullwing and normally fitted with air suspension ; the basis for the W108 range seemed to be the 280SE .
The 280SE , with its 2778 cc single cam six cylinder was a W108 and offered both in Europe and the USA ; there was a LWB SEL model but that was only in the USA , never officially imported into the UK . The UK got the 280SE 3.5 with the 3.5 litre V8 , later used in the W116 . The same car was offered in the USA , but after being fitted with emissions control equipment was down on power , so the 4.5L version was developed to compensate , then offered unrestricted in Europe ( God bless America !! ) ; much the same story spawned the 560 models some years later after the American versions of the 500 were found wanting
Before the W108 280SE , there was also the W109 300SE with a 3 litre six cylinder and air suspension , this one WAS offered here in LWB form as the 300SEL and , for America , as the 300SEL 3.5 and 4.5 . Then , of course , there was the famous 300SEL 6.3 which was the result of a bit of back-room tinkering by engineer Erich Waxenberger .
Hope this is of some help .
