Hello everybody !
Sorry this message is a little too long, but...well:
I’m Pierre ,47, married with a finnish woman, and we are parents of 2 nice girls. I teach german, which is connected to the fact I love german cars and especially mercedes. If you’ve got the patience to read, you’ll understand better…
We are living in the south of France, in a ski resort, Font-Romeu, 20 kilometers away from the spanish border,50 kms from Andorra, in the Pyrenees between Toulouse and Barcelona.
I brought up in a mercedes surrounding as my father loved these cars: 1957 he imported himself his 1st DB,(Mercedes-France did not exist yet) It was a brand new 180 Diesel. He drove it fast through the chaotic spanish roads (no highways at the time) and through France. He was a mercedes fan, and drove only mercedes from 1957 till 1991 when he died!
Later, in 1963, he bought a used 220 S ponton (modell 1955, I think).
At that time, the Pagoda appeared, but it was a dream car we couln’t afford, and as I had 3 sisters and a brother; the big 220 sedan was a much better family car!
I was about 7 or 8 and I told myself that I would possibly buy a pagoda someday, when they will be cheaper…. I knew by instinct that this car was a born as a classic, like any other SL.
All my childhood was bound to mercedes : trips to Germany and to spain, from 1965, in a 190 DC, then in a 220 D.
1971, my family was invited to test the new 350 sl and I remember how the mercedes seller drove us, my sister, my brother and I, at 170 km:h on a little french road near Perpignan. It was fantastic, but I couldn’t forget the Pagoda which looked so good, a little more elegant than the new 350 sl.
Some years after getting my driving-licence, my father wanted to buy me a car, but instead of a new Citroen 2 cv ,one like my brother had got, I said I would prefer an old mercedes benz; and I imported an old 200 diesel from Germany which I drove 6 years, then I changed for… another 200 Diesel!..
Later I had moved to the moutains and mercedes cars were really bad on the snow. That’s why we bought after 1988 several VW and 3 years ago an Audi a6 avant -97.
I own also a –54 renault 4 cv since 1985 and a 74 citroen 2 cv4.
My dream of a Pagoda stayed alive and got finally true last february:
an older man had restored a brown 230 sl 1964, interior: cognac, goodlooking (at first sight!), He had done a lot of work on the car body , brakes, etc…
Only the front grill was wrongly installed and made the car front look rather ugly. The motor sounded bad… But I had loved all mercedes for such a long time, no pagoda could be ugly to my eyes, I was blind , I bought a car which did not run well and which stopped 50 kilometers later: No fuel …! …but I didn’t know, as the dash tank meter showed half full (stuck up, of course!)…
The Mercedes garage in Perpignan took the car, kept it a month, tuned it, then the engine ran much better. At the end of june only, I had a new garage at home for the pagoda and I brought it home to the mountains, the first long trip though I had owned that pagoda for several months already.
Then came 45 beautiful summer days finally with that car.
On a sunny day, the engine couldn’t start anymore and now the Pagoda is in the hands of a local mechanic who works very slowly…. I must wait again for that car!
Pierre
Brown metallic 230 sl 1964 man 4 spd 250 motor
