Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 18]

[ian316]

Good luck Biglips and why would that QP need a new front subframe? Fantastic colour but I still wouldn't touch it with GDGs nevermind anyone else's

Edited by ian316 on Thursday 4th March 16:52

[tobinen]

Thursday is the new Friday - or it was when we could go down the boozer.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

In truth, it's effectively Friday for me as I'm off until Monday so my weekend has started.

[SpeckledJim]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

r129sl said:

Since it's Friday.

Eh?

Every day's a Friday when you're r129sl.

Meanwhile I'm trapped in a drizzly Tuesday morning. Woe.

[ian316]

SpeckledJim said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

r129sl said:

Since it's Friday.

Eh?

Every day's a Friday when you're r129sl.

Meanwhile I'm trapped in a drizzly Tuesday morning. Woe.

Lucky you I'm trapped on the endless merry-go-round of the m25 (or that's what it feels like in this work/home/work cycle)

[carinaman]

Impressive collection of CAR Magazine r129sl. I stopped subscribing around 2010 as new cars weren't doing it for me.

[Dapster]

ian316 said:

StuntmanMike said:

r129sl said:

That looks great.

That's a great zoom meeting background

That really does look fantastic doesn't it? As this is PH I assume everything is filed in date order, oldest on the left, and in alphabetical order of title; "Autocar", "Car", "Classic Car"... with the right hand stack being "miscellaneous" ordered alphabetically by surname of editor or similar? Oh, and "Gentleman's Interests" hidden in the Country Life binder in case the stabby goes into your office. Oh, just me then......

[biggbn]

W00DY said:

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102209...

God this is fantastic. I need it.

Wonderful!!

[0a]

r129sl said:

Since it's Friday. This strikes me as very nice, though I'd rather have a Maserati.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-w124-300D-ULTR...

Wow! Manual as well as only 5k miles. I wonder what the story behind that was? Surely the whole point of buying a manual 300d is to drive to the moon and back?

How much was the 300d new compared to the 300e?

[biggbn]

paulguitar said:

I have every issue of 'Fast Lane', not sure if anyone remembers that one? It had some good writers and was edited by Peter Dron.

I liked Fast Lane, I had a load of Classic and Sportscar from issue 1 and a whole run of Car from the late seventies to maybe 2010, ended up in a skip, the lot of them...yes, I know, couldashouldawoulda...

[Dapster]

0a said:

r129sl said:

Since it's Friday. This strikes me as very nice, though I'd rather have a Maserati.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-w124-300D-ULTR...

Wow! Manual as well as only 5k miles. I wonder what the story behind that was? Surely the whole point of buying a manual 300d is to drive to the moon and back?

How much was the 300d new compared to the 300e?

Sorry for being a tragic geek but I have a period price list.

I can see metallic and alloys as the only factory extras which were £684 and £921 respectively. 5 speed manual was a no cost extra.

In 1991 a 300D would have cost you £25,750 or £27,355 with the 2 extras.

A 300E would have been £31,160, a 300E-24v £34,950 and a 300E 4-Matic £37,190 (all with alloys standard).

So basically that green 300D was an inflation adjusted £61,000 in 2021 money - I'm pretty sure that whatever reason persuaded someone to spend that kind of money on a manual diesel must have changed by the time the car arrived as as you say, it makes no sense.


Obviously if 5k is a bit too leggy for you, you can go with something with slightly fewer miles - 700 miles from new. RHD with km/h speedo (and strangely missing trim below the o/s headlight...)

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id...

Edited by Dapster on Thursday 4th March 14:11

[ian316]

Dapster isn't the sunroof extra too?

[Dapster]

ian316 said:

Dapster isn't the sunroof extra too?

Mercedes were almost reckless in their generosity with freebies back then - elec windows and sunroof were standard!

https://engineeringsocialgeek.files.wordpress.com/...

[ian316]

I'm actually amazed that the sunroofs where free was this just to keep the cost of producing the the body shell down?

[r129sl]

ian316 said:

I'm actually amazed that the sunroofs where free was this just to keep the cost of producing the the body shell down?

Sunroofs were optional in other markets but largely standard in the UK. I think they were a big deal in 80s Britain.

[Dapster]

r129sl said:

ian316 said:

I'm actually amazed that the sunroofs where free was this just to keep the cost of producing the the body shell down?

Sunroofs were optional in other markets but largely standard in the UK. I think they were a big deal in 80s Britain.

Exactly - it was by this stage, increasingly difficult for Mercedes to charge 150% of the price of a Ford Granada Ghia X in a car with all the luxuries of a Ukranian hotel room from 1971 relying solely on build quality and residuals. A German market 300E would have had keep fit windows, no sunroof, steel wheels and manual box. Absolute povvo spec all the way.

[bolidemichael]

Dapster said:

r129sl said:

ian316 said:

I'm actually amazed that the sunroofs where free was this just to keep the cost of producing the the body shell down?

Sunroofs were optional in other markets but largely standard in the UK. I think they were a big deal in 80s Britain.

Exactly - it was by this stage, increasingly difficult for Mercedes to charge 150% of the price of a Ford Granada Ghia X in a car with all the luxuries of a Ukranian hotel room from 1971 relying solely on build quality and residuals. A German market 300E would have had keep fit windows, no sunroof, steel wheels and manual box. Absolute povvo spec all the way.

I'd imagine that even Ukrainian hotel rooms came with certain, perks.

Edited by bolidemichael on Thursday 4th March 16:30

[Percy.]

Just had a look through my old advertisement's collection and found this

[r129sl]

bolidemichael said:

Dapster said:

r129sl said:

ian316 said:

I'm actually amazed that the sunroofs where free was this just to keep the cost of producing the the body shell down?

Sunroofs were optional in other markets but largely standard in the UK. I think they were a big deal in 80s Britain.

Exactly - it was by this stage, increasingly difficult for Mercedes to charge 150% of the price of a Ford Granada Ghia X in a car with all the luxuries of a Ukranian hotel room from 1971 relying solely on build quality and residuals. A German market 300E would have had keep fit windows, no sunroof, steel wheels and manual box. Absolute povvo spec all the way.

I'd imagine that even Ukrainian hotel rooms came with certain, perks.

I must say, it's grim being a middle-aged man in 2021 Covid Britain, isn't it?

[Oak Green]

r129sl said:

Somewhat sadly I have an extensive collection of car mags: every issue of Car since the first in Sept 1962; every issue of Evo and Octane; and Supercar Classics. I keep subscribing to Car and Evo even though they are ste. I gave up on Mercedes Enthusiast as rubbish; but I do have all of the Mercedes-Benz Classic mags. The Petrolicious magazine was expensive but good but they have stopped producing it; Magneto is pretty thin despite being very fat. The Japanese Blackbird magazine was admirable but seems to have ground to a halt. Here's a picture of some of them.

Fantastic, I could spend months in that room!