A decade ago, Mercedes-Benz decided to open a facility dedicated to the preservation and restoration of its cars. As the first and so far only manufacturer-owned and operated facility of its type in North America, I was excited when I heard about it years ago and even more so when I realized it was only a couple of miles from my in-laws. I had always intended to visit and finally accomplished that a few weeks ago. As always, you are invited to join me but put on your good walking shoes and bring a bottle of water as it’ll take a bit of time…
Located in Irvine, CA it is a perfect place for people such as ourselves to spend a spare hour or two if we find ourselves in Orange County and need something to do the morning before a flight or after Disneyland overload with the kids.
Upon entering and looking to my left, I realized that not much says you’ve arrived like a glorious 1971 300SEL 6.3, of which this brown example pictured above is a stunning example. In November 1968, Road & Track proclaimed it “merely the greatest sedan in the world”.
This is one of the few older cars that my wife and I absolutely agree on, and while I don’t foresee a 6.3 in my future, a 280SE 4.5 of the same or similar vintage is certainly on my bucket list. Something about the shape just works for us. This particular car is one of 6526 6.3’s produced between 1967 and 1972 and easily could hold its own against most sports cars of the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Not a huge facility (at least the public part), the Classic Center nonetheless houses a rotating collection of about a dozen cars, some of which are for sale, some for display only, but all in flawless condition. Behind a large see-through roll-up door are a large workspace with lifts that house another couple of dozen or so vehicles, some owned by Mercedes, some owned by private individuals, all in various states of restoration or merely there for service.
Behind the 6.3 was a beautiful little 1969 280SL, one of almost 24,000 produced between 1967 and 1971. The 280SL took over from the 250SL which superceded the 230SL (all the same body). I never realized it before but a small minority of Mercedes apparently had the contrasting color hubcaps from the factory, I thought they were always body color (as on the 6.3 above). Perhaps on a two-tone or a convertible one had a choice?
I tried to get this shot fully in frame but figured that climbing on the rear bumper of the 6.3 to do so would be frowned upon by the staff. Hence this one is a bit cut off. Anyway, why can’t they make cars that look this good and just so right anymore?
This facility focuses mainly on the cars of the 50’s through the 70’s, but can source, work on, or recreate anything from any era (and had representative samples of many eras). In the way back behind completely closed doors are further facilities and parts storage as well as presumably more vehicle storage. In short, during my visit I felt like the kid in the proverbial candy store.
Behind the 280SL was this 1963 220SEb Rally car. This facility rebuilt a standard 220SEb to authentic rally specs of the day but added some modern safety items so that it could presumably be used for promotional purposes. But Mercedes has a bit of a rally history and had some successes. Seeing something like this pass by on a dirt road at full chat must be quite a sight.
Powered by a 2195cc I-6 I’d imagine this is a wonderfully smooth engine, with an output of 120hp not the most powerful but then again the whole car as is only weighs 2900 pounds so it seems adequate, and probably VERY adequate for a 1963 model!
Yes, I’d been eyeing this spicy little number since I walked in the door, finally I got to be up close with it. This 1963 230SL actually ran from Belgium to Bulgaria and back, 5500km’s in 90 hours through narrow mountain passes and distant motorways from August 27 to 31, 1963.
Mercedes-Benz driver Eugen Bohringer drove it day and night along with co-driver Klaus Kaiser, they secured overall victory in the “Marathon de la Route”. I love the placement of the cyclops light, all of a sudden the optional if (to my eyes) tacky lit up grille star on modern Mercedes’ makes more sense, but I doubt this was the inspiration for that.
I could spend all day looking at the rear of ’60’s and early ’70’s MB’s…What a great look.
Sorry about the reflections, but just look at the style inside what is a racing machine that would happily run at over 125mph all day (and night) long, roads permitting. The plaid seat covers, the body color dash. I love the spindly little shifter as well. THIS is the way to do a 5500km race!
Time to slow it down a bit; here’s a replica of the first automobile produced by Carl Benz in 1886, the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. There is one original one (obviously) and then there exist 175 replicas, this one is on display but there was a second one across the room that was available for sale of anyone is interested.
Just 60 miles away from Carl’s place, Gottlieb Daimler patented an internal-combustion engine later in the same year and started construction of a four-wheeled horseless carriage. Neither man knew the other at the time, but eventually, just like chocolate and peanut butter, the two would meet and life would never be the same again.
Where to begin, to many the W111 coupes and convertibles are simply the finest cars ever made. They certainly stand out, even in this room. This one is a 1971 280SE 3.5 fitted with the 3.5l V8 producing 200hp, enabling a top speed of 130mph.
While obviously capable of great speed, I’d think it far more appropriate to drop the top on a summer evening and cruise down Sunset Boulevard or up the Champs, depending on the continent…Only 1232 of this model were produced between 1969 and 1971, which largely explains their stratospheric current values.
Front and center when entering this building is this marvelous 1934 Maybach Zeppelin DS8, powered by a 7922cc V-12 engine producing 200hp.
The “DS8” part of the name refers to “Double Six” (or “Doppel Sechs”) and the eight liter displacement.
This car (as with many Maybachs) was delivered as a chassis to German coachbuilder Hermann Spohn in Ravensburg. He was the main supplier for Maybach bodywork in the 1930’s. As a point of reference, we saw some very fine cars at the Auburn meetup a few years back, this is easily the equal of many of those, if not even better.
On the outside, these are almost identical to the “lesser” six-cylinder cars, the main external differences are the gold plated laurel wreath with the figure “12” in the hood ornament, the word “Zeppelin” on a connecting strut ahead of the grille (look back at the first picture above), and the two exhaust pipes.
During my visit I was the only person there besides the receptionist and several employees that were on the phone discussing parts with (presumably) clients, housed in cubicles thick with reference and parts manuals. Since it was during the holidays nobody was working on the cars in the back room and the roll-up door was closed. After I looked at everything in front, the receptionist noticed I was taking pictures and offered to open the door so I could look in back as well, which certainly made my day! But first there are a few more things to see in the front of the building.
This may be the Niedermeyer Sr. special of the bunch, the 1968 230 (no suffix), although theirs would probably have been the 190 variant with the 4-cylinder as opposed to the 2.3l six pictured here. This one hails from the very end of the production run (1965-1968 for the 230, the 190 since 1961).
Over 600,000 of the W110 series were produced, but with only about 39,000 of them being the gasoline powered 230 version. These somehow look like a frightened guppy to me when viewed from the front, the W114/115 successor to these and the W108 of course has always been more my style. But they certainly were built to the same high standard as all the others, and I couldn’t find anything to object to on this particular example.
Compare this car, a 1964 220SEb, to the gray rally car from the beginning, this is pretty much what it would have looked like stock. The W111 “Fintail” (“Heckflosse”) was launched in 1959 and were obviously nicknamed due to the fintails on the rear fender. Duh. This one is privately owned and beautiful. A total of over 66,000 were produced between 1959 and 1965.
Of bigger import than the fintails though was the fact that this new sedan was the first car to be created with a “safety body” containing crumple zones. Thus heralding the beginning of much progress on the safety front. The fintails, by the way, are supposedly visible when reversing, this helping to place the car when parking.
The most powerful car here was this one, the 1994 Penske-Mercedes PC23 developed for the IndyCars series. This car won the Indianapolis 500 as well as taking the overall series title. Not bad for a car that was developed in just 26 weeks.
The engine displaces 3429cc, is a turbocharged V8 and produces 1024hp at 9800rpm. Top speed is around 245mph. This car represents Mercedes’ first victory at Indianapolis since 1915 (Who knew? Not me!).
I’m generally more familiar with F1 cars which are usually smaller in real life than I envision them. This car though was enormous, visually lining it up with the E-class next to it, it was easily a foot longer and with a longer wheelbase.
As with the cockpit of most single seat race cars, I am always astounded at how tiny they are and how small the drivers must be. My back started hurting just looking at this. And my knee. It’d be enough of a victory just to be able to sit in this thing, let alone drive and win a race.
My first thought upon looking at this car is that is was an AMG E55, however that is not the case. This started life as an E420 purchased by Jerry Seinfeld, then sent to RENNtech and built into an E60 RS. The stock 4.2 liter V8 was bored and stroked to 6.0 (!!!) liters and power went from 275hp to 424hp with 525 lb-ft of torque. Not bad for a now 20 year old car, being a 1997 model. I should have done that with my 1992 400E, basically the same engine.
The top speed of this car was 202mph, 0-60mph was accomplished in 4.5 seconds. This was the most powerful E-Class until the 2005 AMG E55 was introduced by the factory. Curiously Mr. Seinfeld only kept the car for a few years, covered 10,000 miles in it and now it is part of this collection.
One day I’d like to have an engine from a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren just sitting around on a stand. Until that happens I will have to content myself with ogling this one.
5.4 liters with a supercharger, 617 hp. Not too shabby. At the time, Mercedes owned 40 percent of McLaren and the cars were built at McLaren in England. Most of the cast parts of the engines carry the AMG logo.
We’ll head to something more Curbside-appropriate in a minute but this is worth a mention. What we have here is a 2008 Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series. This car was designed after the Official Formula 1 Safety Car and contains the first V8 engine designed autonomously by Mercedes-AMG (Mercedes bought all of AMG some time ago, but until this engine modified existing engines rather than designing new ones). The “Black Series” badge denotes that it is much more than just a typical everyday AMG model. The creme de la creme de la creme if you will.
A C-Class with a 6.3liter engine producing 507hp is something special but obviously has little in common with your neighbor’s mother’s C230. Big engine, little car, the whole world seems to come across that magic formula for fun. At least it’s red and not the typical silver…
The receptionist sits right in front of this wall. She is not in the picture because she is opening the back roll-up door for me! Halleluja, Halleluja, Halleluja!
What’s this? Oh, just a freshly painted bodyshell for a 1954 300SL Gullwing, 1 of 1400 produced (along with 1858 roadsters)! This would look so great next to my own McLaren SLR engine that I was talking about a minute ago.
Sitting right above it and hopefully not dripping onto the 300SL body is this 1910 Mercedes-Simplex. It’s a woody! Actually it has a 2.6l I-4 producing all of 25hp with a 4-speed manual gearbox. See, they do work on anything with the 3-pointed star.
Here’s an engine shot of an SL to show the level of care used when rebuilding a car from the ground up. This car still needs pretty much everything else but likely runs at this point.
The story behind this one is that is belongs to someone on the US East Coast who purchased the car out here on the West Coast. It is a 1990 EVOII model that was never sold in North America. Now it is over 25 years old and fully legal to import into the US (as this one was). The new owner has asked the Center to go over the car and correct any deficiencies before he lays eyes on it. Our overseas readers may be somewhat more familiar with this one, it’s the ultimate evolution of the regular 190E 2.3-16 Cosworth that we did receive in the mid-80’s and a very rare sight indeed. The front bumper may be having surgery or perhaps was removed to access something behind it. Check out the rear wing, it’s taller than that of a Subaru WRX STI and almost Daytona-esque. That was stock on this version.
I’m not sure why I don’t have a picture but parked above it was a 1979 300D sedan in average CC condition. With 80hp, it’s here for a reason unknown to me, either someone’s cherished vehicle or a candidate for restoration.
Another 300SL, this time a roadster that apparently took part in the Colorado Grand classic car rally.
Above it, a view of yet another 300SL roadster that we rarely see, sort of the “upskirt” angle…Drivetrain completely out, getting prepped for metalwork it appears. The 300D I mentioned is barely visible to the right.
Just sitting on the ground was this 190SLR with the KEYS IN IT. Two words come to mind: Daddy Likes! Oh how I wanted to just hop over the door into that plaid seat and twist the key…
Simply superb. Perhaps it seems that I’ve definitely drunk the Kool-Aid here, but really it’s more like having been water-boarded with the Kool-Aid. The worst thing about the entire place are my pictures, it may be time to replace my camera, I didn’t think a digital point and shoot could wear out but evidently they do. The cars ALL look much better in person than in my shots.
Wanna see a Gullwing chassis and drivetrain? I’ve got you covered. Feast on it. From the rear…
And now the front. The tube chassis is just beautiful. And seeing it all in basically as-new condition is hard to describe. I’ll just let the picture be the thousand words.
All things considered, these are probably the finest condition and most original vintage Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the world. Before acquisition, a car is thoroughly checked over, its background gone over, and anything it needs is addressed. An example story regards a Mercedes 230SL that was found to have been restored elsewhere to visually excellent condition but when researched it was found to be number 279 of the total production run which is significant for the following reason.
It was found to be missing the protective cover for its fuel pump under the trunk floor. Interestingly the first 400 cars produced had a cover of a different design than the rest of the production run. Rather than modify a later cover or just leave it off, the techs retrieved an archived construction diagram of the early design cover and perfectly reproduced it themselves. The point is, the cars don’t leave unless they are perfect, as they were when they left the company’s grounds the first time around.
It didn’t really strike me until I looked at all these pictures again – I’ve seen Gullwings before and an old boss of mine’s father was the CEO of Nestle and came by one day with a beautiful 300SL roadster that I got to pore over. Many of us have seen at least one of these cars somewhere, be it a parade, a classic car show, a museum or what have you, but this is likely the largest single collection of these cars in one location.
Another one, waiting for its day. The engine is wrapped in plastic and the body is just loosely attached to the chassis.
I found one with the luggage in place. I don’t even want to know what those pieces must cost…
Silver really is the best color for these. Even with all the other silver cars out there today, this would still stand out.
Ran when parked? Lovely in a very creamy white over red interior with the white steering wheel. Flat tire, covered in dust, looks like it came straight out of a barn in rural Petaluma or somewhere. There may even be a chicken feather or two if one looks thoroughly enough.
The car above, a 2006 E320CDI, was one of 33 cars that Mercedes sent on an overland drive from Paris to Beijing that year on a fuel economy challenge run. Of the 33 cars, 30 were European market versions and three were US market versions. Presumably this is one of the three US ones.
It followed the route of the first transcontinental car race in history which took place in 1907 but backwards. Back then it took 62 days to get from Peking (new Beijing) to Paris and I am guessing Mercedes was represented. This time the plan was to accomplish the drive in 26 days in the other direction and the drivers were competing on time as well as fuel consumption. Note that significant parts of the route are still not served by roads and these were standard road cars.
As a fitting bookend to the portion of our tour in the back room that started with the freshly painted 300SL body, we will finish this part with a freshly painted 1964 300SE W112 series car, to be (re-)equipped with a 3.0l I-6. I very carefully walked around this car and found the paintwork to be immaculate, certainly better than what is seen in any kind of regular series production today, no matter how high-end.
I’m not positive if access to this back part is granted normally, I didn’t waive the Curbside Classic secret pass or anything this time, the lady just offered to open it for me, as I mentioned I was the only one there and obviously very interested in everything. Even if it isn’t open normally the front part is splendid enough to be worth a visit. The collection rotates so even though you saw many of the cars here (but not all), there will surely be different ones as time goes by. But even if not, they still look better in real life.
Along with the cars, the Classic Center also has a large amount of automotive art on the walls, and of course a large selection of branded merchandise scattered around. Even a cozy couch in a sitting area with literature for a weary spouse, perhaps. It is a wonderful place to spend an hour or two and is absolutely free of charge. If you find yourself in Southern California, I highly recommend a visit. Auf Wiedersehen!
You have me hooked! Now I want to visit the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center too.
I order parts from a fellow there named Tom Hanson, a terrific guy that just about everyone in the classic Mercedes community knows. Your post has inspired me to make the trip down there for a visit after ten years of talking about it. According to Tom the Classic Center has never been busier. The last time I checked the wait to get your car in for restoration or repair work was two years. How would you like to pay one of those bills? On a Pagoda with the two-tone color option, the second color was on the hardtop and wheel cover centers.
Mercedes heaven!
Wow; what an overload of goodies in there. No, I’ve never seen so many 300SL in one place before.
My father’s med school buddy married the daughter of the owner of Mahle pistons; she bought him a 300SL gullwing for a present. He married very well….And he drove it in rallys.
He came by to see us in Innsbruck in about 1959, and I got to crawl all over the inside, but very sadly I was not allowed to come along for what was apparently a very memorable ride he gave my father and older brother, who somehow got shoehorned in there too.
When we moved from Iowa to Towson, MD in 1965, there was an old guy who had a very original (and somewhat battered) gullwing in his backyard shed a couple of blocks from our house. Once or twice I saw him get it running, and once saw him driving it around the neighborhood. It didn’t sound 100% right. Since his house was fairly modest, I’m guessing he must have picked it up very cheap, but was having a hard time keeping it going, as the fuel injection in them was rather temperamental.
I hope he kept it long enough to get a good price for it, or his heir, in any case.
I’m not fully sure about the contrasting wheel cover centers, but no doubt it was likely used on silver cars, like the one shown, otherwise a painted silver center might not have worked well with the chrome on the rest of the wheel cover. But that may not be the full story.
Thanks for the great tour!
What a magnificent collection. Nothing has the presence or stature of a classic Mercedes, and the themes they developed through the 50s-80s made for an unparalleled run of great looking cars – all obviously from the same manufacturer but – unlike Jaguar – not trapping themselves in the old times.
By comparison, modern Mercs (we call them that in Europe, never had any fancy Fords here) are to my eyes styled no better than the best Hyundais or Kias. I strolled over to the MB corporate website, and was faced with this wall of guff:
Design philosophy of “sensual purity”.
Since mid-2008 Gorden Wagener is heading the worldwide operating design unit of Mercedes-Benz and all brands of the Daimler AG. With effect from November 2016 he has been appointed as Chief Design Officer at Executive Vice President level.
For him, design defines brands and a holistic approach is essential. Not only the products but also the brands of Daimler AG must be staged perfectly… Therefore, he and his international team are responsible for the design of all brands and products within Daimler AG, including all cars as well as a holistic corporate design of all brands. The focus is on the Mercedes-Benz brand. Under his leadership, the new design philosophy of sensual purity, which defines a modern luxury, was created in 2009. It embodies both characteristics „hot“ and „cool“ and thereby expresses an essential aspect of the brand – the bipolarity of emotion and intelligence.
Oh dear! I don’t think that the designers of the classic cars pictured above worried about sensual purity or bipolarity – they instinctively knew what made a Mercedes-Benz.
It so happens that I was reading a similar stream of flim-flam from Jaguar recently, and one thing that has struck me is that both Jag and Merc were describing themselves as “brands” – like Colgate or Kit-Kat, I guess. C’mon, car companies own MARQUES. This sounds worryingly like that dreadful gang of FMCG marketeers that GM hired as brand managers back in the darkest days.
Welcome to the modern world!
Yes, what has changed most is that even the most plebeian car companies now have cars that look as good or better than Mercedes.
And frankly, there’s really nothing that can be done about that. Technology and design have changed in ways that make that not only possible, but matter of fact.
What could a Mercedes or Jaguar do differently, to make themselves stand out like they did back then? If they could, they would. But they can’t, so they have to “manage the brand” very carefully, and this Classic Center is decidedly a part of that. The Mercedes brand has heritage; Kia doesn’t. So how better to play that up than this?
There is a large poster (sign) in the Classic Center that simply says “Mercedes – We Invented The Automobile”. It is extremely fitting and shows in the obvious pride they have in their heritage.
All true. I was in Berlin a couple of months ago, and saw another replica of the first Benz in the excellent Germany: Memories of a Nation exhibition. I had no idea there were another 174 of them in existence, I would have guessed perhaps five!
I don’t have an answer to the question “what could Mercedes do differently?” But I do think that other marques (I’m sticking to that word) are conveying their visual brand values more consistently – eg Audi, Porsche, Volvo – despite necessarily spreading them across a broader range of vehicle types than they once did, and without getting too stuck in the past. (Goes off to think again about citing Porsche…)
Phillip, I agree with you.
Maybe it’s just for me but I’d like to quote the great Frank Zappa: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”
So all this (and others) design “philosophy” speechs sound pure nonsense to me. I wonder if Paul Bracq or Bruno Sacco (former MB designers) cars or other great designers accomplishments required that kind of thing.
Jim, your in – laws must have been my neighbors when I lived in Irvine (near the 5 and Culver). I’ve visited the Classics Center several times and it always felt like Mercedes Mecca. I’ll take that 6.3, thank you.
Wirklich wunderbar ! Thanks Jim.
Good to see that Mercedes-Benz takes its heritage, and the enthusiasts, really seriously. Visit any oldtimer and youngtimer car show here and there are Benzes everywhere. Most of them from the sixties, seventies and eighties. Sedans, coupes, convertibles, gasolines, diesels, the whole Benz-shebang.
Given their high overall-quality great numbers of them made it into the 21st century. And, a classic Mercedes-Benz (for example a W115 from the early seventies) in an excellent condition is still affordable. They’re never a bargain of course, but you don’t need an extra mortgage on your house either…
fantastic, thanks jim! my problem with all this is that even if money were no object, i couldn’t get one of these. cars need to be driven and it would be sacrilegious to drive a car that had been restored to museum quality. give me a 450slc with a manual transmission or a 450sel with a touch of patina and i will be satisfied.
Jim, A mesmerizing post. Every vehicle would be a prime candidate for my billionaire garage (and I’m not normally a big Mercedes fan – although I’ve always thought a 190SL would be a fitting vehicle for my retirement years).
The most evocative photo to me is the Gullwing chassis and drive train. No wonder those cars were/are so expensive. The chassis is beautiful, a work of art by itself. Not sure what the yellow tapes are for, but I’m sure they’re there for a high quality and pricey purpose.
Back in the 1960’s, we’d see an occasional 6.3 on the road. Some well cared for, others dirty and dented. To some they were just another Mercedes sedan, but we boy racers knew exactly what they were, and never tried to see if they wanted to run with us down Meadowbrook Parkway to the sea. “Fastest production sedan in the world” was what one car mag called it.
You may not be happy with the quality of your photos, but I sure am. And I suspect, so are many other drooling and wistful CC’ers).
Thank you for taking the time to write this up.
Thank you. As you mentioned about the Gullwing, the bits underneath are amazing; it’s too bad they’re not meant to be seen every day, if were possible to create a transparent body this would be the car to place it on! It’s a good thing they produced a wonderful body shape to drape over it and once seeing the chassis it makes perfect sense why they chose the door solution that they did.
Wow, that gullwing chassis! Not much to it, but it must be very stiff with all that triangulation.
My choice to drive would be the 220 rally car.
I was vacillating between the 220 and the red SL next to it, to be honest, both were fantastic. I’m still not sure which of the cars in the place was my absolute favorite, there were just so many contenders. I think ANY of these would be magnificent to have in my garage and have use of and wouldn’t disappoint. I can’t really say that of any other small to medium gathering of cars I’ve seen, there is usually a runt of some sort in there somewhere!
Wow. If I ever go to the US, now I know where I’ll step in first
Audi should do the same. They really need to supply parts for C3 models….
Mercedes does a great job on the parts support for their classic cars. On my 190E the availability is not as good but much better than for something like a GM product. There are very few new parts available for my Cadillac which is the same age as the 190E. You have to buy rebuilt parts which wasn’t so bad before the production on those moved to China. The Chinese quality is just terrible. The guy who worked on my A/C said he literally has to keep replacing parts until he finds ones that work. He explained that these Chinese companies went around and bought up small Mom & Pop US operations that were rebuilding the compressors. Then they shut those down, moved the production to China and voila a monopoly. Thankfully the reliability on the Caddy is better than on the Merc.
Never knew you had a 190. Congrats on keeping one on the road!!!
That said, I wouldn’t buy a Chinese part unless if it was just a cheap trim part, like a shift knob or a window switch. I see a lot of VW parts for sale on Chinese counterparts of fleaBay and I always try to figure out their quality in the long term
(BTW, for a moment I thought you would have some kind of connection to Volvo based on your username finishing in “Brick”…)
I’ve always wanted a four-eyed 740 Turbo wagon with M/T and that’s where the name comes from. There were none around when I was looking four years ago so I moved on to my #2 choice the 190E 2.6. One of the best kept secrets in the classic car world if you ask me and there are always plenty available. Check out the choices from CL SF Bay Area…
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/cto?query=mercedes%20190e&srchType=T
I use it as a daily driver and it’s been pretty reliable so far, 35,000 miles with no major repairs. Even the A/C works. Spent way too much on minor items because I’m picky about how things look and want everything to work. For example, I hate when the headlamp doors on the W201 and W124 get yellow and cracked. Replacing those on mine with new Bosch parts transformed the car but was expensive.
The neat thing about the 190E is that a lot of the parts come in Chinese knock-off form. The younger guys want “Euro” style headlights which I can’t stand because they look bug-eyed, just like they did on the Pagoda and W108. You can get those new from Bosch or, if you’re on a budget, from the Chinese makers Depo and TYC. There is an obvious difference in quality but it’s nice to have the choice. I would have never bought a Chinese rebuilt compressor for my Cadillac but those are the only ones available these days. Quite a contrast versus the 190E.
CC effect: I trailed one of these driving the 5 from LA to Oakland today, as well as an obviously recently purchased (plate sequence) gorgeous blue W124 sedan. He saw my e30 of similar vintage and we gave each other “the nod”.
Wow. Plenty of them and affordable. For those who a rust free classic with a low price, you really could do worse than a 190. The only slightly expensive one was the $8000-9000 Cosworth.
Glad you’re keeping yours original and good looking. I also like the US-spec headlights.
I’ve never seen a 2.6 in Portugal, but when I was beginning to write this I passed by a nice white 190D with lacy spoke wheels. The shape of those cars is timeless. And this from a Volvo guy (my username ends in “Brick” because of that).
Audi should, it is a bit of a sacrilege that they don’t have the parts availability although their cars are a bit more disposable, some of which may be a chicken vs egg thing. With all of the commonality between their models as well as cross-sourcing from VW you’d think they’d have done so, especially since Mercedes used to own Audi! Perhaps the history is itself to blame, i.e Horch, DKW, Wanderer etc to form Auto Union, then Andi, NSU, MB and now in the hands of VW, there was never any real continuity as at MB and BMW.
The Audi Forum in Ingolstadt is a magnificent museum as is their Pavilion at Wolfsburg, (I highly recommend both) but from a parts perspective the situation is borderline abysmal. Arguably their most well-known and evocative car of modern times, the 1981-1991 Quattro, which was hand-built over 11,000 times, has a long list of no longer available parts. BMW semi-recently showed an early ’70’s 2002 that was ENTIRELY built using parts from their spare parts catalog, Audi should be able to do the same (in my opinion of course).
The lady I spoke with at the MB Classic Center indicated that the parts they have the most trouble with are newer ones from the 80’s and 90’s due to the materials used, such as seat fabrics and dashboard coverings. I expect modern logistics and inventory methods have a lot to do with that as well, i.e. there is probably a more conscious thought process to managing and not over-producing excess inventory but also having enough spares on hand.
If Audi only supplied interior trim and electrics it would already be a huge step forward as that’s the weak point of old Audis. A B4 Audi 80/90 or a C3 100/200 if not crashed and put in daily use, by these days will have a solid body, (those dang things are really rust resistant!) but at least one electric system killed in action (unless it’s a really basic one)
But I also agree. With such a car like the Quattro, unless they threw away the tooling, they definitely should restart the production of body stampings for old cars.
Twenty years ago I worked for a dealer near London. Parts man told me he could get most parts from 1959 at a price.
The
The best of the best. The flavor of this article on the Classic Center illustrates that very special Mercedes-Benz aura that hooked me on cars and still holds my attention when I see Mercedes other than the newer (as noted) Kia competitors.
I have not been to the CC in California but I have gone to the Museum in Stuttgart – both old and new. There is such a special place in automobile history held by this company and their story overwhelms in significance and interest all others – with maybe just Ford nipping at the heels of the Mercedes-Benz historical juggernaut. But Ford certainly has done very little to celebrate and preserve; not true of the German company.
For these eyes all the cars photographed here (including the CLK) are clearly Mercedes (or Maybach) and couldn’t be anything else. I miss being able to having my head turned by Mercedes cars on the road. To me the last of the real distinguished Mercedes were the 129, 124 and 126.
Thanks for this inspirational piece on my once and still favorite automobiles. I don’t go to California often but must get to the CC.
…”For these eyes all the cars photographed here (including the CLK) are clearly Mercedes (or Maybach) and couldn’t be anything else”…
Very well put. A while ago I did some reading about Brabus’ restoration heaven. Without knowing that, there’s not one car in this shop that doesn’t say Mercedes-Benz loud and clear, from whatever distance.
And I certainly remember which car led me to Brabus Classic, it was this 1989 Brabus 190E 3.6S with its 239 hp inline-6 engine, one of their “project cars”.
That is an outrageously handsome car Johannes. I liked how Brabus worked with the inline-6. Mercedes seemed afraid to go much beyond the 2.3-16, I guess because they were afraid of starting a war with BMW. A shame because the 190E is a nicer driving car than the E30, at least with the A/T. There really should have been a counterpart to the 325is beyond the Sportline in the final two years.
…”That is an outrageously handsome car”…
I was completely blown away when I saw it for the first time and started to read about it. The best looking power-W201 I ever saw, it’s so perfect, so fully spot on, that shiny red paint combined with the big black rims, the whole stance of it. No way that anyone can ever improve this.
And to think we even didn’t have a look under its hood yet…
Wow, what a place! Most impressive is that in this day and age there is still a company that invests this much in its heritage. Great parts support would be enough, but then they invest in this.
I think the gold W111 is my flavor.
Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. My favorite Mercedes Benz models are:
W126
W116
W100 600 Pullman limousines
Amazing place! For years I have been a Mercedes fan, and I really need to get out the Mercedes book I was given a while back.
In the spirit of this fantastic place, for the last several years I have seen a pre-fin tail Mercedes sedan parked in a field. From a distance it didn’t look that bad.
Friday, I drove past a garage that sits right on the highway. Parked out front was that very same Mercedes. Let’s hope it gets just a fraction of the love these do and it’ll be back on the road soon.
Although I have no intention of ever having my W116 refurbished by the factory, one of the reasons I finally bought into MB was the trickle-down effect from a program like this to a person like me.
Unlike Ferrari (who had to recreate the championship-winning sharknose F1 for their ‘heritage’ collection), Mercedes Benz have kept pretty much every significant car in the history. Their Oldtimer program sets the benchmark.
I agree that a silver arrow looks best in silver, but that burnt-orange/tan 190SLR is delicious. Tartan… hehehe
Fantastic post and pictures, Jim.
Talk about the “CC Effect” – I spotted this 280 SEL 4.5 just this morning!
That’s beautiful and looks like a match color wise to the 6.3 in the Center. I’d take it as is or without the L. Great find!
I shot a genuine (and somewhat ratty) curbside 6.3 in San Mateo last year, and I really must get to it soon.
All I kept thinking about while reading this article is who in the world can afford to get their 40-50-year-old car repaired like this?
All the time, the space for storage, the prices of parts and materials, the labor of the restoration staff. Nothing but $$$$$.
You think it costs a fortune to get a 5-20-year-old MB fixed at a local MB dealer? Try doing at this place.
I look at it this way. Were I a man of means that had an older Mercedes that was showing it’s years, would I buy a new Mercedes or have my old car refurbished. I think that the success of this center answers that question.
Great article! Thanks for posting it.
Beautiful cars, insightful commentary and great pics – thank you. Jim.
Am I the only one OCD enough to notice that the plate of the first rally car begins in “S:LK”???
Jim, Great story and pictures. I have a 1971 6.3 I wish I had the resources to have the CC make my 6.3 as beautiful as the one you photographed.
Back in the fall of 2008 I was in Birmingham, AL and took a day trip to visit the Barber Museum. I was very impressed with the museum but what caught my eye was the lowest level. The museum has an atrium type of construction which allows a view of all the floors. The lowest level has the restoration workshops and several cars that, I guess were either being worked on or waiting their turn. Unfortunately this are is not open to the public. I asked the people there if they would allow me to go into that area since there was no work being done and there weren’t that many people in the museum. They were not as gracious as the lady you met at the CC.
Ooh, I know we would all like to hear more about your 6.3! You must think about writing something up one day. What a magnificent vehicle and even if it’s not in pristine condition, who cares, it’s still extremely cool.
Whyyyyyy doesn’t BMW do this in the us????
Because BMW’s heritage and (collector following) isn’t nearly as deep and extensive as Mercedes’. How often do you see BMW sedans, never mind sports cars, from the 50s, 60s and 70s? There’s a very big difference. BMW could not adequately support something like this, given the scale of it.
There were plans to open a similar center in SoCal a while back (they have one in Munich) but it never opened. Sigh. I mean, yes, you are right; the BMW presence in the US got bigger only after the Neue Klasse / 2002 era, etc, but gosh, it would simply be nice for those of us who follow the marque to be able to have our cars just–fixed.
BMW has a museum, but I don’t think a restoration shop, at their Spartanburg, SC campus. Lots of historical stuff there.
BMW does do this, to a certain extent. But its based in Germany, not the US.
Back when I worked at Ducati Richmond (which originally started out as a BMW airhead restoration shop), we were very used to the realization that BMW was still making genuine parts for any and all of its motorcycles from the 1946 /2’s on. Despite the enthusiasm for them, the company showed a complete disinterest in covering the WWII era R75 Wehrmacht bikes.
My understanding is that they also cover all BMW cars starting with the pre-WWII 328’s. OK, so they don’t go back as far as Mercedes, but then BMW automobiles started out as nothing more than license-built Austin 7’s back in the very late 1920’s. And the motorcycles only go back about 7-8 years further than that.
Thanks for the wonderful pictures! I like the way that, in the best hot rod/back yard restoration tradition, the Gullwing chassis is currently rolling on painted steelies and Wal-Mart tires. I think I could maybe afford the Wal-Mart tires. And the Indy winner looks so much sleeker without all the advertising stickers-you can really see all the scoops and vents this way. Was that the one where they figured out the loophole in the rules that allowed them to run a much bigger (pushrod) engine? Lovely cars, all.
Thanks for a very interesting tour. I’m glad to see that the public is welcome and free of charge. I like the older model sedans with the stacked headlights, with or without fins. The gull wings are of course fantastic, but luckily there are many older models from the 70s and 80s that can be bought for a reasonable money. A two seater SL of any vintage is a pretty great car. I will hold out for a 450SLC coupe. I will definitely drop by the next time I’m in So Cal.
Jim thanks for a great feature. Our family is planning a trip for Canadian Thanksgiving in October to Disneyland. I’ve been thinking what else I could visit while down there when I’m not needed to watch ov the grandsons. The classic centre will now be on list. Having visited the Mercecdes Museum near Stuttgart in 2010, the classic centre would be a nice follow up.
Do it, it’s great. Budget 2 hours maximum and avoid traffic before 10am and after 3pm. The address is 9 Whatney, Irvine, CA 92618 Tel is 866-622-5277
Open M-F 8-4, Saturday by appt only. Closed Sunday.
Thanks for the information!
Awesome story! I’ve heard of the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center. I’ve never visited there.
Rally pedigree yep There were two Mercedes coupes entered in an international rally here years ago 450 coupes 140mph on gravel forrestry roads they were said to be capable of the next quickest was HSR Vauxhall Chevette 2.3 DOHC hatchbacks none of these cars saw success the win going to Ford Escorts as usual but the big Benzs were something to see at full chat on gravel roads
I’ve scrolled through those pictures for the third time- thank you for the virtual tour! That’ll be a must-visit the next time we head south. My aunt and uncle owned my two favorite Mercedes’s from the period- a 250SE Coupe (Dark Green with parchment Leather) and a 280SL. The SL had an interesting story- it was ordered by my uncle in ’69, Dark Blue with Blue leather. When it arrived, the dealer called and said there was a slight problem… but wanted my uncle to swing by before they changed anything. The car was built and shipped with a Horizon Blue roof and matching wheel covers. My uncle decided he liked the combination, and took delivery a is. I wound up inheriting that car, and later sold it to finance the purchase of our first home. No regrets, but I often wonder what became of that car.
Thanks again for the wonderful post.
Wow, the 280SL sounds really nice! Post a pic of it if you are able to, I’d love to see it. And thank you for enjoying the “tour”.
I’ll have to find one and digitize it first. On my “to do” list- organize all the old photos. I’ve made it through the slides….(glad I still have the old projector).
I`d be bored out of my gourd at Disneyland. Will be paying the Mercedes Classic Center a visit on this summer`s West Coast-Vegas roadtrip.
Well they are doing some nice work. Kudos.
But for the same or similar money you could have Porsche Classic do one up and have a car that’s light and responsive.