W124 300e (carat duchalet).....

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richard300

richard300

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Joined
Nov 10, 2005
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110
Location
West Sussex
Car
CLK230Kompressor (factory AMG sport pack) & Jaguar XJ8 (X308)
Hi everyone..... Just purchased a lovely old 300e (12valve) in Almandine Red metalic with cream leather upholstry (will put pics up when i pick up the car)...
What initially caught my eye when i was flicking through the auto trader was the fact that it seemed to have a carat duchalet kit on the car, when i went to see the car i found it to have the carat duchalet front and rear bumpers and bootlid spoiler, the rear badge aswell as a signature carat duchalet steering wheel in mathing cream leather, also the car sat quite low (not stupidly so though)......

now i recall back in the day seeing adverts in the motoring mags for carat duchalet, and i know that they did alot of leather and woodwork parts aswell as the styling stuff and a range of wheels, butthat is all i know about them...

anyone have any further information on the company and the products available for the w124, currently my car has 16" MB wheels, but i would love to track down some carat duchalet wheels and am curious to know if there are supposed to be side skirts that go with the kit??? and did they sell lowered/uprated suspension parts?

Any help and info will be greatly appreciated,

Many Thanks.........

Richard
 
Welcome and nice car ;)

Does the Carat Duchatalet make it worth much more than say standard car of the same type?
 
thanks Robert :)

and Gina, not sure at all if it ads to the value, but i liked the car

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...S-BENZ&model=300&min_pr=&max_pr=&max_mileage=

just needs some larger wheels, trouble is i dont like mixing products from different tuning companies, but after a search of Carat Duchatalet on e-bay and nothing at all turning up, i dont fancy my chances of finding some 17" CD wheels soon.....lol
 
Very nice looking car and the interior looks mintier than a packet of extra strong. :cool:
 
If its Tuesday it must be Belgium!

Duchatelet started life in 1968 as a Coachbuilding firm based in Liege in Belgium. They initially specialised in soundproofing,luxury trimming in walnut and leather etc and also made stretch limos for 1985 onwards. This expanded about 2 years later to a security division who made armoured limousines as has been said already. They also manufactured body kits to go with their retrimmed interiors. They should be regarded as coach builders and interior trimmers rather than a tuning company like AMG. There's a link to a brochure here.http://w124.org/doc/preparateurs/caratduchatelet.pdf
There were side skirts but they look a bit clumsy to me. To get the true "Duchatelet look" you need the flat faced 5 spoke wheels shown in the picture. I think they may have been made by Ronal but not sure??
 
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Carat wheels turn up on Ebay every now and then , keep your beadies peeled !!

Welcome to the forum .
 
Hope this does not offend anyone but i think that steering wheel is made by Carat DeucheBagAlet, its horrible. It is a different colour than the leather, does not match any other part of the dash and looks like its only been sprayed by a cocaine fuelled Halfords employee of the month.

But as with everything, personal taste and all that.

Rest of the car is looking very nice and is in fantastic condition, shame about the steering wheel.
 
thanks Grober, very helpfull indeed.... i have i agree also that the flat faced wheels are whats needed to complete the car, so guess i will play the waiting game for a set of them :eek:

As for the comment made by Ciaran regarding the wheel, i have to admit that its not to my liking either, i dont like its design or it being cream, although i have to say, when i saw the pics of my car before viewing it, i was concerned that the seats, wheel, doors all seamed to be different shades of cream, but in reality they are all the same shade..... i will however keep the wheel in the car as i want to keep it all Duchatelet.....


:) :) :) :)
 
Yeah , looks good !

Like the 'soft focus' shots , like a '70s adult movie ....

FWIW i would stick with the existing wheels until either a set of AMG II's ( like mine ) or a set of genuine Carat Duchatelets come up ...

Jaymanek has just got hold of a set of genuine Carats for his w123 ...

You could start hassling him to sell them ;)
 
Howard said:
Jaymanek has just got hold of a set of genuine Carats for his w123 ...

You could start hassling him to sell them ;)
Click to expand...

He also has a genuine Carat Steering Wheel in Grey...

Ill only sell the wheels if the offer is right as ive just spent a fortune refurbing them...
 
Nice car and looks a minter indeed. The interior looks brand new as if its never even been sat on.
 
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thanks guys.... Howard, glad you like the 70s style 'glow' lol....:) :) :)

The shade of metalic red looks alot lighter in the pictures (i gues because of said glow)

As for the wheels, normally a set of styling 2 AMG wheels would have been my first choice, but i dont wanna mix and match 'brands' so a set of 17" Duchatelet wheels would be my ideal choice (if they are available in that size and offset for the W124).
 
Looks very nice, making me think I really need to sort the paint on mine....

The steering wheel is growing on me - although not something I'd want if I'd have bought the car new, its a bit different and original.

Ade
 
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