Best of both worlds

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Hi Guys

This is a bit off topic but I'd like to share it anyway. My 17 year old son recently got his driver's license and we haven't seen him or my wife's 1991 180E since. This gave me an excuse to buy another car so I opted for a 1971 280 SE 3.5.  I must say I have been pleasantly surprised at how good these cars are to drive. The car is nicely sorted with air conditioning, a tacho in place of the clock, inertia reel seat belts, the speedo recalibrated to kilometres and a floor mounted shifter. I've just come back from a 1,200 km trip and the car just flew. My Pagoda will always be my first love but there's nothing like a V8 for eating up high speed miles. It works well pottering around town as well. Best of both worlds and I'll have to keep dreaming about that 108 coupe. Maybe one day.

Regards

Mark Ravagnani

1965 230 SL light blue, auto, RHD

[ja17]

Hello Mark,
Yes the Mercedes W108 Mercedes V-8 sedans are known to be one of the all time favorites of the Mercedes factory engineers. The spacious interiors had some of the most comfortable seats ever.
Your 3.5 V-8 is unusual since it was replaced by the 4.5 V-8 in the USA. The 3.5 V-8 reved higher and had  higher compression. Keep that front suspension greased, that big heavy, cast iron V-8 likes to eat front suspension kingpins.
We can make this string a little more relevant if we have a quiz and list all the parts this car has in common with the W113!?

Sorry for adding to this off topic! Couldn't resist!

Joe Alexander
"66" 300-SE W108 (one of 2700 made)
"69" 300-SEL 6.3 W108 (fastest sedan in the world at the time)
etc.

Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio

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Now you need to try a 300SEL 3.6 . You'll always want one. By the way, a 3.5 Coupe is a W111 ..
tom in CA