[V8] W123 addiction!

[Bastian Homburg]

nice to see I'm not the only one around who thinks along the lines of 
"no stick, no sale". And, honestly, Audi dropping the manual in the A8 
(I wasn't willing to put up with the harsh ride and extreme insurance 
cost of an S8, which could be had with a six-speed over here) was and 
still is a big reason for me to stick with my V8.

If you're looking for a Mercedes that's both fun to drive even today and 
built to the old standards, check the 16-valve W201 models. These drive 
almost like a first-generation BMW M3 (dogleg shifter!) while offering 
the same epitome-of-solidity feeling that is the hallmark of Benzes of 
yesteryear.





Roger Woodbury wrote:
> Well, the SLC with manual transmission was never brought to the US (to my
> understanding, anyway).  I have never driven a big bodied Mercedes with
> manual transmission that I would have had in the garage.  The transmission
> gear spacing on the early fantail cars that did have manuals (190, 219, 220,
> 220s, 220se, 300on and on....) had a spaghetti shift lever and little round
> knob.  The shift lever was spindly, the little round knob about the size of
> a golf ball, and the whole rig was obviously made to vaguely move gears
> around in a gentlemanly or gentlewomanly manner where the voyage was to be
> on placid waters in a serene state of mind.  I drove quite a few of these
> cars, including an extraordinarily pristine ruby red 230S that I tried to
> get my father interested in. That car was a used car with 19000 miles or
> something, and was pristine in every way.  My father loved the car, and had
> it had an automatic he might have bought it even though it was out the other
> end of his price range.  I figured that he wouldn't care about the shift
> lever being for genteel use only.
>
> I know that Mercedes has used ZF boxes in some of their more potent
> performance cars, but Porsche used a Mercedes automatic in their 928s
> (although with special Porsche designed gear case....).
>
> These cars are simply not designed or intended for guys or gals with a left
> foot fetish.  Unless it's one of the really heavy metal power panzers like a
> 6.3 or 6.9, the cars made when Mercedes was still making "generation" cars
> were not intended to compete with the likes of BMW.  The big difference is
> that what Mercedes intended for its car to do, it could still be doing long
> after those other cars were either crushed into sardine cans or sitting in
> back of the barn waiting for someone to find that one part without which the
> car could run, and which BMW not longer could source.
>