#39 Pagoda at Amelia Island 2017

[Herb Hothan]

Can anyone give me the year and model on this W113 (IDed as such by M-B USA) that I saw last March? The license plate looks European and reads
"S OK 92 H."

I can be contacted at herbeenie@yahoo.com

Thank you very much for the help.

Herb Hothan 
Berlin, MD  USA

[dirkbalter]

Herb,
The license plate is a more recent German plate. The S stands for "Stuttgart"
That is all I can tell you.

Dirk   

[Bonnyboy]

another replica of the most famous Pagoda.    The mirror on the door looks early suggesting a 230SL but other than that I can't tell.  The rest looks just like my 69 280sl other than that third eye in the middle. 

The original sat a bit lower in the front and back, had red wheels, darker red paint, the door sticker was further forward on the door but had the same mirror and it was a early 1963.   

[Vander]

Where it is parked at the Ritz Carlton tells me that it is likely owned by Mercedes-Benz and was there as a display vehicle. So reach out to their classic center. Also it is pre 1969 judging by no head rests.

[Bonnyboy]

Found another picture of that car on the Internet - it  says 230SL on the trunk so 1963 - 1967.

[114015]

Herb Hothan
Berlin, MD

What ....?
You are from Berlin and do not know what a "Stuttgart" licence plate is?
Ah, Berlin - Maryland....  Okay..., then maybe not.

Okay, Herb, the car you saw there is a 'Mercedes-Benz-Classic-Center recreation car' of the factory original 1963 rallye car with which Eugen Boehringer and Klaus Kaiser won the brutal 1963 Spa-Sofia-Liege rallye.

See here:

http://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/de/instance/ko/Vor-50-Jahren-Eugen-Boehringer-gewinnt-auf-der-Pagode-die-Rallye-SpaSofiaLige-1963.xhtml?oid=9917202

http://www.eugen-boehringer.de/home.htm

There have been tons of reports in the international magazines about this event, back then and today  - which made the W113 Pagoda famous.

The original Eugen-Boehringer race car from 1963 (and also 1964, then with Dieter Glemser and Martin Braungart) was believed to be destroyed later on or lost or something. The factory was unknowing that the original car, serial no. 000014 was still alive, hidden in a normal race-less car career around Stuttgart, between Mannheim, Fellbach and Stuttgart for all of its life.... not far away from its built place.    

The MB factory did not know that fact and "built" a recreation rallye-230 SL around 2002/2003 to celebrate the "lost" original Boehringer racing-victory 230 SL car.
That's the one you have seen on Amelia island.

The original one was/is still around, was undoubtly re-discovered by its today's owner York,
bought, uncovered, proven (by Erich Waxenberger, the famous MB engineer who built the car back in 1963 and built the famous 300 SEL 6.3 in 1968) and is around on European classic car events all over.

For example on the Pagoda SL Group's 2016 European Event near Merano, Alto Aldige in Northern Italy.
Here is the original, see the picture & enjoy.

Since the original race car was "re-discovered" again, the somewhat more powerful (tuned) factory recreation from 2002 is more or less without value - at least from the historical point of view.


Achim

[114015]

Here's another Event where the original Boehringer race Pagoda was participating in.
 
Don't know when and where that was...


Enjoy !

[neelyrc]

Also, see Achim and Martijn's article with photographs in Issue 20 of Pagoda World, March 2017.

Welcome to the Forum Herb.  Please take the opportunity to introduce yourself in the "New Member Introduction" thread under "General Discussion" on the Home Page.

[Herb Hothan]

Thank you all for your prompt replies to my question. March 2017 was my one and only visit to the Amelia Concours, with the red Pagoda one of my favorite cars from all the concours and RM Sotheby auction vehicles. In the interest of complete transparency, I must say that I have never owned a M-B. My interest in cars (Three sports cars I have owned are a 1960 Bugeye Sprite, a 1963 MG Midget, and, today, a 1969 MGC GT.) is generally based around an island nation west of the Mercedes' home.
Since buying the MGC two years ago, I have often gone to an owners' group website for information on keeping my car going. Your group also seems like a great source of information and fellowship (personship?) around what I found to be a very "cool" car.

Danke,
Herb

P.S. If it is any redemption, I did sell the Sprite when my daughter was about to be born and bought a used, two-door Opel Kadette wagon, which was later traded in on a new '69 VW Type I Beetle. I also owned a '69 Type II Bus. Well, at least they were from Germany, as is my last name.

[Bonnyboy]

Welcome Herb.  From experience I can tell you that the Pagoda is very mild mannered and I have had no evidence of aggression by my Pagoda towards my British bikes or my MGB.  It sounds like a Pagoda would fit well with your MGCGT  (nice car by the way).