Meeting a hero.
Discussion
I got to drive something I've been wanting to drive properly for a long, long time today.
I appreciate that to a lot of people this is just an old saloon car, in a dull colour, and I may have to work hard to explain what's so special about it. Well, here's the thing; this is a 1990 S-Class Mercedes. This is the last iteration of the luxury car before it began its journey to where it is today - with concessions to handling, to style, to environmental responsibility.
They don't make cars like this any more, and the DNA of these old titans is being ever more diluted by clever engineering and consumer preferences.
So I wanted to drive it, while the opportunity was still there, because there was every risk if I didn't then there might not be another chance. I'd taken this one up and down the odd side street before, but never out properly on the open road for a decent journey.
There's a saying, alluded to in the topic, about never meeting your heroes, especially when they're old and tired, but I needn't have worried. The car was everything I'd expected. I know "just run in" is a cliche, but it really did feel that way.
I started off on a slightly awkward note by having a tussle with the electric seats, until I realised that the seating position I wanted simply didn't exist. You sit upright in the old Merc, so upright I felt as if I needed a peaked chauffeur's cap and a uniform.
There's also a weird relationship with the throttle. I'm used to cars where a flex of the toe is enough to have you hurtling down the road. In comparison, the throttle in the Mercedes seems almost designed to stop you using the available power. (Of which there is a lot. It's a five litre V8, after all.) This makes perfect sense - once you remember that this would have been a chauffeur driven car, and the ability to imperceptibly glide up to speed is more important than the instant gratification of a hair-trigger throttle.
It's also heavy. Really heavy. You have an enormous and quite thin-rimmed steering wheel, which only serves to heighten the feeling of antiquity, and I soon found the easiest way to conduct the car at speed was to make that weight work for me; once set in a cornering attitude the car will bowl along even a windy country road at speed with little drama, and while the steering is light it is very precise.
What you can't do is abuse it. I wasn't about to get it out of shape - public roads aside, it wasn't my car to do that with - but you can feel from the way you have to thread it through corners that it won't take hamfisted grabbing at the wheel the same way a modern car will. You do have to concentrate on what you're doing, and I wouldn't look forward to piloting one of these through a rainy downpour at night on slick, narrow country roads.
What it's not, though, is slow through the turns. Once you get into that rhythm of letting it smoothly run through each series of corners, using the slow but accurate controls to your advantage, you find yourself losing no ground to modern machinery. I even had to overtake to get the stately old barge up to what felt like a suitable cruising speed. No drama; a solid squeeze on the accelerator, and all conducted within the swell of midrange torque that big V8 is happy to provide.
There's a real sense of occasion, too. Staring down a long black bonnet with that three-pointed target on the end, letting the car dictate the ebb and flow of the cornering, and the interior hushed enough for me to hear the ticking of my battered old Seiko automatic, making minute adjustments to attitude with that big old steering wheel - it gives a real sense of a bygone motoring era, a time when a plutocrat would have sat in the back with a cigar and a telephone the size of a cinderblock.
Said plutocrat would have been most upset when I found a piece of road clear enough (and an initial velocity low enough) to finally give the throttle a real stab and see what the old girl would do. In a lot of ways it feels faster than a similarly performant modern car; the rear end squats down, the V8 goes straight from hushed whisper to full-on muscle car roar, and the automatic gearbox rams through the shifts in a way that seems more suited to the dragstrip than the executive express.
A truly wonderful encounter. I was almost loathe to give it back...
... but then I had the promise of an entirely different automotive encounter; getting agreeably lost on the back roads of the Surrey Hills. And for that kind of driving, the Mazda has all the right moves.
I appreciate that to a lot of people this is just an old saloon car, in a dull colour, and I may have to work hard to explain what's so special about it. Well, here's the thing; this is a 1990 S-Class Mercedes. This is the last iteration of the luxury car before it began its journey to where it is today - with concessions to handling, to style, to environmental responsibility.
They don't make cars like this any more, and the DNA of these old titans is being ever more diluted by clever engineering and consumer preferences.
So I wanted to drive it, while the opportunity was still there, because there was every risk if I didn't then there might not be another chance. I'd taken this one up and down the odd side street before, but never out properly on the open road for a decent journey.
There's a saying, alluded to in the topic, about never meeting your heroes, especially when they're old and tired, but I needn't have worried. The car was everything I'd expected. I know "just run in" is a cliche, but it really did feel that way.
I started off on a slightly awkward note by having a tussle with the electric seats, until I realised that the seating position I wanted simply didn't exist. You sit upright in the old Merc, so upright I felt as if I needed a peaked chauffeur's cap and a uniform.
There's also a weird relationship with the throttle. I'm used to cars where a flex of the toe is enough to have you hurtling down the road. In comparison, the throttle in the Mercedes seems almost designed to stop you using the available power. (Of which there is a lot. It's a five litre V8, after all.) This makes perfect sense - once you remember that this would have been a chauffeur driven car, and the ability to imperceptibly glide up to speed is more important than the instant gratification of a hair-trigger throttle.
It's also heavy. Really heavy. You have an enormous and quite thin-rimmed steering wheel, which only serves to heighten the feeling of antiquity, and I soon found the easiest way to conduct the car at speed was to make that weight work for me; once set in a cornering attitude the car will bowl along even a windy country road at speed with little drama, and while the steering is light it is very precise.
What you can't do is abuse it. I wasn't about to get it out of shape - public roads aside, it wasn't my car to do that with - but you can feel from the way you have to thread it through corners that it won't take hamfisted grabbing at the wheel the same way a modern car will. You do have to concentrate on what you're doing, and I wouldn't look forward to piloting one of these through a rainy downpour at night on slick, narrow country roads.
What it's not, though, is slow through the turns. Once you get into that rhythm of letting it smoothly run through each series of corners, using the slow but accurate controls to your advantage, you find yourself losing no ground to modern machinery. I even had to overtake to get the stately old barge up to what felt like a suitable cruising speed. No drama; a solid squeeze on the accelerator, and all conducted within the swell of midrange torque that big V8 is happy to provide.
There's a real sense of occasion, too. Staring down a long black bonnet with that three-pointed target on the end, letting the car dictate the ebb and flow of the cornering, and the interior hushed enough for me to hear the ticking of my battered old Seiko automatic, making minute adjustments to attitude with that big old steering wheel - it gives a real sense of a bygone motoring era, a time when a plutocrat would have sat in the back with a cigar and a telephone the size of a cinderblock.
Said plutocrat would have been most upset when I found a piece of road clear enough (and an initial velocity low enough) to finally give the throttle a real stab and see what the old girl would do. In a lot of ways it feels faster than a similarly performant modern car; the rear end squats down, the V8 goes straight from hushed whisper to full-on muscle car roar, and the automatic gearbox rams through the shifts in a way that seems more suited to the dragstrip than the executive express.
A truly wonderful encounter. I was almost loathe to give it back...
... but then I had the promise of an entirely different automotive encounter; getting agreeably lost on the back roads of the Surrey Hills. And for that kind of driving, the Mazda has all the right moves.
Excellent post
I've recently bought a w124 300d and while not quite in the same league as the S class the genetics are obviously there. Although mine is glacially slow until it gets rolling it can be quite rewarding and reassuring on back roads, even in the wet. And there is a massive sense of occasion about smoking about in these things. You just adjust your driving style and waft about quite happily in them.
I've recently bought a w124 300d and while not quite in the same league as the S class the genetics are obviously there. Although mine is glacially slow until it gets rolling it can be quite rewarding and reassuring on back roads, even in the wet. And there is a massive sense of occasion about smoking about in these things. You just adjust your driving style and waft about quite happily in them. Great review, we should have more of this sort of stuff. I guess I'm guilty as charged as I own a preferctly review-worthy barge myself 
The W126 is an awesome car. A mate of mine has LWB one that I've driven a lot, and it's everything it's hyped up to be. Impeccably built, great interior, quick enough when it needs to be (and this is a 6-pot 300 as well).
The one thing that stops me owning one is I simply cannot get comfortably in it. The seating position is, unlike the rest of the car, so antiquated that any distance in it gives me problems, which is a shame. It's a lovely car that I'd still be happy to drive today.
The W126 is an awesome car. A mate of mine has LWB one that I've driven a lot, and it's everything it's hyped up to be. Impeccably built, great interior, quick enough when it needs to be (and this is a 6-pot 300 as well).
The one thing that stops me owning one is I simply cannot get comfortably in it. The seating position is, unlike the rest of the car, so antiquated that any distance in it gives me problems, which is a shame. It's a lovely car that I'd still be happy to drive today.
Well said!
Last week I had the chance to drive my director's 2003 S500 - the first time I'd driven an S-Class. Everything that you've said rings true bar the driver's seat, which could easily be tilted back far enough to please even the most laid-back of rude boys!
The most amazing thing I found was the ride: driving through roadworks on the M25 and then later on the now-typical pockmarked British A-roads the car just glides. I mean, you know there are imperfections in the road surface and cats' eyes etc, but only because you see them and expect them. I could hardly hear them in the car, let alone feel them!
What also astonishes me is that the car's just been sold for less than £5,500...
Last week I had the chance to drive my director's 2003 S500 - the first time I'd driven an S-Class. Everything that you've said rings true bar the driver's seat, which could easily be tilted back far enough to please even the most laid-back of rude boys!
The most amazing thing I found was the ride: driving through roadworks on the M25 and then later on the now-typical pockmarked British A-roads the car just glides. I mean, you know there are imperfections in the road surface and cats' eyes etc, but only because you see them and expect them. I could hardly hear them in the car, let alone feel them!
What also astonishes me is that the car's just been sold for less than £5,500...
excellent post, I really enjoyed it.
I currently don't own a car (not since I scrapped my nova 2 years or so ago) and am starting to save up for another one. My choice are basically an MX5 or a big bargey thing, I had been looking at old BMWs but the older Mercedes seem to be a bit less chavvy. Ideally I'd like both - one for motorways, one for fun.
I currently don't own a car (not since I scrapped my nova 2 years or so ago) and am starting to save up for another one. My choice are basically an MX5 or a big bargey thing, I had been looking at old BMWs but the older Mercedes seem to be a bit less chavvy. Ideally I'd like both - one for motorways, one for fun.
I have a 1990 300 SE. I bought it last August off a Chinese diplomat as I was moving out of London and needed a station car. I paid £1,110 for the car with 12 months Mot with a view that I would drive it into the ground, whilst not spending a penny on it , and replace it when it gave up the ghost. Initially I enjoyed the freedom of immunity and kept the diplomatic plates- until I received a firm letter from the Chinese embassy but that’s another story! I have had to spend some money on it…………. 5p to be precise. That was for a new windscreen wiper fuse and it was my fault it blew as I tried to use them when they were frozen solid. The build quality truly is astonishing, the only car I’ve had that comes close was a 911 993. I am starting to love this car, so much so last week I even paid the bloke in the car park £20 for a valet, the first clean she has had in 8 months. I’ve even given her a name, Bluebell.
is it fun to 'waft'? Do you find it keeps up with modern traffic ok on the motorway?
I only do 2 kinds of journeys - fun local trips to the countryside (which would be nice in a sports car) or long distance (to the south) trips, which I do my train at the minute. I think a big wafty comfy executive car would make these a bit better by car.
I only do 2 kinds of journeys - fun local trips to the countryside (which would be nice in a sports car) or long distance (to the south) trips, which I do my train at the minute. I think a big wafty comfy executive car would make these a bit better by car.
dome said:
Excellent post I've recently bought a w124 300d and while not quite in the same league as the S class the genetics are obviously there. Although mine is glacially slow until it gets rolling it can be quite rewarding and reassuring on back roads, even in the wet. And there is a massive sense of occasion about smoking about in these things. You just adjust your driving style and waft about quite happily in them.
That wafting DNA went all the way down to the lowly 190E. It's a very pleasurable place to be, which can sometimes be difficult to explain to people who are used to modern cars. No it's not fast, nor does it handle well or even stop that efficiently. But it wafts with the very best of them. Mercs from that era are simply brilliant cars. I've recently bought a w124 300d and while not quite in the same league as the S class the genetics are obviously there. Although mine is glacially slow until it gets rolling it can be quite rewarding and reassuring on back roads, even in the wet. And there is a massive sense of occasion about smoking about in these things. You just adjust your driving style and waft about quite happily in them. Timberwolf said:
...you can feel from the way you have to thread it through corners that it won't take hamfisted grabbing at the wheel the same way a modern car will. You do have to concentrate on what you're doing, and I wouldn't look forward to piloting one of these through a rainy downpour at night on slick, narrow country roads...
You should try it, you'd be surprised. IME these big old Mercs don't even notice rain and storms, it feels like it's all happening somewhere else, a bit like watching a storm through your living room window. They just plow on completely unfazed, possibly due to long wheelbase, plenty of weight and comparatively skinny tyres.Timberwolf said:
They don't make cars like this any more, and the DNA of these old titans is being ever more diluted by clever engineering and consumer preferences.
I agree, there is something about older cars, especially mercs. I would give anything for the opportunity to drive one, which is unlikely to happen. What would the insurance people make of a 17-year old in a W126 
. Nice write up too. Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff