Jalopnik
I used to have a job writing the catalog copy for a certain musclecar-parts supplier with the same name as an X song, and my duties included going to car shows to take photographs for the catalogs (warning to prospective copywriters: don't take photography classes in college). I hated that part of the job, as car shows are mostly soul-destroying affairs that serve only to shoot a few more hours of one's life through the head for no good reason. By contrast, wandering around this weird island city and looking for interesting cars parked on the street to shoot for this series is quite pleasant; instead of single-interest obesesso-dudes yammering at me about their date-coded U-joint caps, I get entertainingly eccentric original owners who come out to tell me about their favorite bartender at the Buckhorn Tavern, circa 1958. So. Here's a real survivor of a 60s Mercedes I ran across in the East End; it's got primer patches and probably more miles under its belt than all the other cars on its block combined...
The four-door W111 Mercedes was stolid in a somewhat menacing Teutonic manner, but the coupe looks pretty snazzy.
The interior is battered but still packs more class than the wood trim of every flashy SUV ever made. That short, straight shift lever is just so no-nonsense, too. You want the gear, ja? Here is the gear! The 220SE coupe for '65 had a list price of $8632; in 2007 dollars, that translates to about $54,000. You want cheap, get a Volkswagen!
Looking at the details on this car makes me miss the days when Mercedes-Benz was all about restraint and subtlety- none of this nouveau-riche McMansion techno-gingerbread crap, like they stick all over their cars these days.
Yeah, the new Mercedes crop is fast as stink, but look at this car! With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth we do over how Detroit Cars Useta Have Style, we might also save a few gnashes for Stuttgart's stylistic decline as well. You might quibble that this car had a wimpy 134-horse six, but there's no law that says you can't drop something with a little more sap under that hood...
This car would be laughed out of a Mercedes show, but that just gives it character. Gotta say, though, the owner ought to find a replacement hood ornament on eBay.
It's as if the designers looked at every excessively exuberant wraparound rear window put out by Detroit in the 50s, waited a while, and came up with their own muted-but-cool version.
And, of course, it has fins!
Related:
Required Riding: Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3 [internal]
Comments
Super writeup on a great car.
Mercedes wasn't perfect with their engineer-driven car designs (no, you can't have AC and a sunroof, that vould be schtupit!), but they earned their classic-ness. Plus they ran forever. Maybe that's why the new ones aren't tanks?
At least the recent CL500 brings back a taste of the great roofline seen here.
I have always thought this generation of MBs to be one of, if not THE best-looking big coupes ever, and I am astounded at how (relatively) inexpensive they are to buy. Nice 3.5s can be had for 35 grand.
Very cool car. My father has a 1964 220b sedan in similar condition. He bought it in '64 as the second owner and it was used as a daily driver by him, my mother or me until 2005. A random odometer failure in the 80's (it has since fixed itself) means we'll never know for sure how many miles it's gone, but I ballpark it at 300k. I love to see another fintail Mercedes still being driven on a daily basis.
These Benzes are always total class. Wish more cars were like this.
I also dislike the overwrought Benzes of the last decade and a half. The new ones look perfect in an Orange County McMansion driveway. More me, the last honestly engineered and designed Benz would be a 1989 Mercedes E300 - before the chrome, cladding, body color bumpers, and superfluous driver's side power mirror.
10 years ago I sold my first car: a 1965 220S sedan. For some reason, the vestigial fins on the coupe and convertible are muted-but-cool, whereas on the sedan they were a little out-of-control. Thus, the car did not become a classic, and it sold for [cheap]. I should note that mine not only had some primer, but one of the doors my grandfather had repaired with spackle and bond-o. At least it had the tristar gunsight hood ornament. And the far cooler euro-spec headlamps.
Sounds like you didn't get a look under the hood -- the tiny straight six is positively swallowed by the space in there. As far as I know, the W111 didn;t come in a 6.3...but could have.
this is not mine, but check out those fintails!
[www.motorbase.com]
I'll take one with tinted windows and KGB vanity plates.
@ZeGerman:
You must be thinking of the "SS" version.
The "Luftvaffe" option gave it another 25 horses.
Great car. I love those old Benzes, especially the ones with the single piece European headlights.
One thing about the straight six--it may not have been powerful, but I defy you to break one.
Anyway, great find, Murilee. This is becoming my favorite Jalopnik feature (along with the weekly bickering over whether a car is worhthy of inclusion in a virtual fantasy garage).
My dad bought me a 1967 250SE for my first car in the early 90's. It cost $150 bucks and only three of the four brakes worked, he drove it 100 miles to get it home. He let me cruise it around the neighborhood before I was 15, which seems fairly irresponsible in retrospect. The SE was a rarer fuel injected engine model. I sold it to a guy with 250 SE convertible for $750 because he needed the engine.
I used the money to buy a 78 Fiat Spider that was missing second gear. That was a mistake.
I had a '64 220Sb sedan for a bit in the very early '80s. It was good to drive, but the price of parts was stupid.
F'rinstance, it needed a new turn signal flasher. Standard parts-store flashers blew fuses, it had to have the special Bosch flasher, $28 instead of $5.
It needed back brake shoes. The originals were riveted instead of bonded, or the other way 'round, can't remember, but it meant there were no relines; $43.15 per *shoe* instead of $30 per axle.
It finally was going to need transmission work (on a 4-speed auto (from 1964!), and a rebuild was going to cost enough that it would've been cheaper to pay the local hot rod shop to put in a small block Chevy and a GM tranny, build the driveshaft and mounts and stuff, and make it all work. I sold it to somebody dumber than I was.
Nice find!
I gotta fix the brakes on my 220D so I can drive it again.
Is anyone else astonished at how cheap 60's and early 70's Benzes are? Why is that?
That guy probably went through too many hood ornaments in the 80's to get another one. Remember when it was cool to hang a Merc, VW, or even the damn pentastar (even mom's 86 NYer Turbo was a victim) hood ornament around your wanna-be rapper neck?
It was hard enough finding wagon-specific parts for my 63 Chev II Nova back in the day, I can only imagine what it's like to keep up one of these beauties.
Keep this stuff coming, I love "Down the Street!"
I seriously want to get one of these to replace my Subaru, and daily-drive it. They are just so damn COOL.
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