Hello Folks,
My suggestion as a winter project for everyone is to get the Brooklands "Gold Portfolio" for the 230/250/280SL which is a collection of dozens of test reports and articles on the 113 from 1963 through 1989 from many different car magazines.
You'll see that many of the complaints we have as we "strighten out" our cars have existed since conception...we are NOT discovering anything new! So as to the thread question:
1) Brake Diving. Solutions existed at the time and there was no reason for this crap after the 1st or 2nd model year. How it got out of design and engineering with this is beyond me.
2) Tad bit more power. Perhaps a supercharger like the 190? I know it wasn't factory, but it would be nice.
3) Overdrive, either electric (common at the time) or a 5th gear. The reason the ZF 5 speed is rare today is that it was rare in the 1960s and long waits and high prices equalled few takers.
4) Spin on oil filter like the rest of the world.
5) Less complex fuel injection: even in the 60's dealers didn't fool with it, it had to go to a regional service center...
6) Improved wipers and faster wiper speed.
7) Fully adjustable suspension w/o adding or subtracting parts. The use of different height spring pads to achieve proper camber is poor engineering. You should be able to adjust castor, camber and toe in/toe out with tools not parts!
Swing Axles? How about semi-trailing arms? Mercedes had to patent their swing axle to get it to work "right" and even this is somewhat of a joke as the car goes to the edge. Read all the reviews: nobody has ever said anything good about swing axles, and those of you with a long memory will realize it was the death knell of the Corvair and how Ralph Nader got his start![:0]
9) Improved defrost, blower and ventilation (when closed! I have all the ventilation I need with the top down, thank you very much
10) A proper place for factory installed stereo speakers. Hey they came up with a weirdo mono speaker in the dash in a size no other company in the world used, they could have found a place somewhere for stereo speakers...certainly by 1969 or 1970.
11) Replacable U-Joints on the prop shafts--something that BMW and MB forgot about and why places like Driveline of Portland are in business.
Other then that lady and gents, the car is damn near perfect.
Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red w/Black Leather
Restored