In the open-air CC treasure trove that is Tokyo, one can be overcome by an embarrassment of über-riches. Over the past couple of months, after two years of mostly seeing W123s and R107s, three truly classic Benzes crossed my camera lens in quick succession: an early W111 two-door and two V8-powered W109 saloons. The coupé will have to wait, as one got the honours of CC’s front page quite recently. But that left the W109s – which one to pick? The achingly beautiful one or the living legend?
Yes, because the choice was between this 100%-perfect (in my view) stunner of a 3.5, with its gorgeous composite headlights, ivory steering wheel and pristine upholstery, or a slightly less magnificent one with the gargantuan 6.3 litre V8 – a.k.a the best sedan in the world, according to many contemporary journalists. Well, I found the sexy silver one first, so let’s stick to the chronological order…
CC has featured a number of W108s, but the W109 is a far rarer bird. Our most esteemed CContributor-in-hiding and erstwhile expert in fuzzy maths, Prof. Don Andreina, authored a must-read thinkpiece pondering the significance of the number 300 in the context of the S-Class in general and the W108/W109 in particular, which is such a fair point that I will take this occasion to expatiate upon it, if I may.
When the W109 was born, back in 1965, the fact that its model name was 300 SEL was completely justified. The letters were easy enough to decipher: it was an S-Class. But that denomination is apocryphal, and the exact significance of the “S” in “SEL” is the subject of some speculation, as it seems to have varied over the years, being said to stand for anything from Sport or Super to Sonder and even Standard. The engine was fuel-injected, so E was for Einspritzung, which is straightforward enough. For its part, the L here stands for Lang, i.e. long wheelbase, as W109s all have 10cm extra rear legroom compared to (most) W108s. So far, so muddled.
The bigger issue is the 300 bit. Ever since the launch of the 300 limo, back in 1951, this haloed numeral always referred to the presence of the Jewel of Stuttgart that was the M186, an alloy-headed OHC straight-6 displacing 2996cc (or roughly 300cl) that powered all the blue-blooded Benzes of the period, from the Adenauer to the 300SL and the W112 Fintail that preceded the W109. Then, in late 1967, the venerable six, by then producing 170hp, was pensioned off. Mercedes kind of lost their marbles at that point.
The old 3-litre used in the 300 SE (W108) and 300 SEL (W109), as well as the 2.5 litre M129 used in the 250 S/SE (W108), was replaced by a single 6-cyl. engine, the 2.8 litre M130 – effectively a bored-out M129, offering the same 170hp as the 300’s old six. So W108s became 280 S/SEs, which was all well and good. But the W109s kept the 300 SEL designation, and did so until this base 6-cyl. version of the W109 was nixed in early 1970 due to slow sales.
The issue with the 6-cyl. W109s was that they did not offer much value, given their considerably higher price, over the W108. That became especially true when the junior S-Class got a LWB variant added to its range: the 280 SEL might have had a bit less chrome on its pillars and less wood in its cabin, but it was the same car as the 300 SEL in all other respects, minus the W109’s pneumatic suspension.
Then the 6.3 happened, pretty much around the same time as the range was revamped. All pretense of the 300 number making any sense was dropped. This is a story for another post, but Mercedes intended to put their new small-block V8s in the W109 as soon as, but someone took the 600 limo’s massive motor and managed to convince the Daimler-Benz board that this was a good idea. Instead of calling it, I don’t know, the 600 SEL or the 630 SE, Mercedes dubbed this fantastic FrankenBenz the “300 SEL 6.3.” And then they just kept that nomenclature for the smaller V8s that came after: the 3.5 joined the range in 1969 and the 4.5 made it to the platform just before closing time in 1971. It didn’t matter what was under the hood anymore, it was 300 SELs all the way down.
I know, I’m making a thousand-word mountain out of an alphanumeric molehill, but it’s a pet peeve I have regarding Mercedes. For many decades, their system made some sort of sense, then they come out with a 4-engine S-Class range and not a single numeral in the model name fits any of the engines. Plus, they put the 200hp 3.5 litre V8 found in our feature car in the SWB W108, but called that the “280 SE 3.5.” Why? Why not “300 SE 3.5?” Aaarrrrgh!!
I care because this is the only thing that really bugs me about this car. Everything else about it is pure, unadulterated bliss. This magnificent dash, coupled with that ‘50s-flavoured cream bakelite steering wheel and shifter knob and the uncharacteristic, but oh-so-beautiful grey cloth of the seats – just look at this cabin! Rolls-Royces and Jaguars of this era pale by comparison; Cadillacs and Lincolns aren’t even in the same league.
The tell-tale cloth interior and the old-style license plate mean this car is highly likely to have been imported into this country from new. It may be 50-plus years old, but it looks as if it came off the boat last month – the usual Tokyo banger, I guess.
Much as I can understand those who baby their cute Mark II wagon, wax and polish their RX-7 every weekend or lavish attention on their precious S13 Silvia – and it’s a great thing they take the time and energy to do this, of course. Let’s not kid each other though: this silver beauty is a lot more worthy of such adulation. But there’s plenty of car nuts around here to cater for both the more mundane domestic stuff and the older exotics, it seems. So barring an unforeseen catastrophe, this W109 should be able to carry on being the very illustration of postwar automotive excellence for another 50 years at least.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: Mercedes 300SEL (W109) – Trying To Make Sense Of The Magic Number “300”, by Don Andreina
Cohort Sighting: Yes, The 300SEL Comes With More Chrome Than The 280SEL, by PN
Curbside Classic: 1966 Mercedes 250S (W108) – Cadillac Und Lincoln Kaput, by PN
CC Twofer: 1967 Volkswagen 1500 & 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280 S (W108) – Matching Numbers, by T87
A quite magnificent car, even if I share your confusion on the naming. Still, M-B would sort that for the new range with the 450SEL 6.9…..
I could easily spend my pension pot on getting this back to Europe – that interior is superb in execution and condition, even if the dash does look a little dated for 1970.
Thanks Tatra87 for more excellent work on behalf of Tokyo Tourism….
In more recent times, numbers that don’t match the engine’s displacement have become the norm rather than the exception. Mercedes does it, BMW does it, Lexus does it, others I can’t think of this early in the morning do it. This practice really took off when smaller but more fuel efficient engines, sometimes with forced induction, replaced larger engines. But higher numbers had long signified higher-end, more prestigious cars and manufacturers were evidently worried about trying to sell high-priced but low-numbered cars.
Worst current example of something like this is the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. Needless to say, it’s not turbocharged.
Few cars carry themselves with greater comportment than this. Very handsome. Cadillac interiors lost the plot after about 1964, and Lincoln a few years later. The 1970 domestic dashes may have been a bit more contemporary, but that was hardly an advantage.
If original, the four place integrated shoulder belts speak volumes about misplaced priorities at other manufacturers at the time.
The condition and style of the upholstery suggest it’s been redone, but I’m no expert on Mercedes cars of any era.
As to the numbering, Mercedes was in a conundrum when they created the 6.3. There was no way they were going to call it a 630. And actually it wasn’t the first Mercedes to not reflect its engine displacement: the “Grosse” 600 had 6.3 liters.
This is peak Mercedes, for me. It just doesn’t get any better. Yes, objectively they got better, but not in terms of their styling, presence, image, etc. And this is a superb example; perfect in every way, although I’d take the four round headlights.
That velour upholstery is sublime.
Mercedes’ decision to install only leather and MBTex in US-bound cars is a reflection of American taste, which really put leather at the top. My guess is that since leather was what was inherently used in convertibles and roadsters going back to the earliest period, and also in high end woodies like the Town and Country and such, it was of course more publicly visible than the fabrics used in closed sedans.
Without going into a detailed history, it seems that leather started making serious inroads into sedans in the mid-50s, in cars lke the Cadillac Brougham and others, were it was increasingly available or standard in partial use (“leather trimmed”).
The American rush to embrace vinyl over fabric as a premium upholstery was seemingly a reflection of that. Vinyl was everywhere in the 50’s; think dinettes and such. Fabric was made to seem old-fashioned, regardless of its comfort advantages.
Fabric hung on in American sedans in the Brougham era, but it also became excessively garish, as in the puckered/tufted velour in the Cadillac Talisman and such.
It does surprise me some that Mercedes didn’t offer the velour here; or did they, if one requested it? But somehow the image of Mercedes in the US became deeply enmeshed with leather and its effective imitation.
I agree with all of this.
On the fence about the headlights (I could really go with either), but otherwise yes, a thousand times yes. Best Benz EVER.
The M186 engine has an iron lump block and is the main reason a space frame was chosen for the 300SL.
A 280 SE 3.5 is not a 300 SEL 3.5. The 300 is a step of luxury and complication above the 280 SE.
Velour is not available in the US because it won’t pass federal interior fire resistance standards, not because of customer preference.
FMVSS 302 (regarding flammability of interior materials) was implemented in 1971. Mercedes was not offering velour here well before that, and of course there’s fire-resistant versions of velour, as many American cars offered velours and other fabrics after 1971.
It my understanding the velour used by Benz does not meet the flammability regulation.
The EU has interior flammability standards too, and has since at least 1995. I don’t have time to compare it to the US standards, but a) I assume they’re probably similar (if not more severe), and b) if Mercedes wanted to sell velour here that met that standards, I’m quite sure they readily could have. As I said, Mercedes wasn’t selling cars with fabric seat coverings in the US going way back, decades before those standards.
Velour was definitely offered as an option in Canada, and I was familiar with a 1985 300D in lapis blue with beige velour, in the same pattern as the subject car. I have or at least had a brochure along with price list for my own 1985 300D which indicated the optional velour was but a few dollars less than optional leather (something like $1,050 vs $1,075). Velour interiors were uncommon for sure up here but they did exist.
…and Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standard № 302 is identical to the US reg, so yes, DB could’ve easily offered velour in the American market if they’d wanted to.
Chas: correct about the M186 — alloy head. not block. Don’t know why I thought otherwise!
But for the W108 vs W109, how is my statement (” the 280 SEL might have had a bit less chrome on its pillars and less wood in its cabin, but it was the same car as the 300 SEL in all other respects, minus the W109’s pneumatic suspension.”) wrong, exactly?
Oh, Tokyo. Even the parking space looks ‘buffed and polished’. 🙂
Beautiful car.
By the Tokyo standards you’ve shown us, it should be junked – why, there’s a shameful rust blister just to the right of the grille.
This car is either the most original W109 on earth, or has had bank-melting sums spent on it. The paint looks swimmable (if a little chilly) and I have never seen the acreages of chrome on these glitter like that other than on the far more valued coupes.
The nomenclature is not so Delphic: try a current BMW, any of them. Silly things are sold with what looks like the VIN number for a badge.
I spot one small flaw in the lighting system: somebody has installed not quite the right amber lamps on the sides of the front fenders. For the approximately zero other people who care, here is a comparison of the side turn signal repeater (top) factory-fitted to cars sent to countries like Japan, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Israel; and the front side marker light/reflector (bottom) factory-fitted to cars sent to the US and Canada.
Same housing, same overall lens shape; different hookup, lens optics, and lens orientation. The repeater was installed with the thick part of the wedge-shaped lens to the rear (I could be wrong about that) and wired up to blink with the front and rear turn signals; the side marker was wired to burn steadily with the park/tail/headlamps and installed with the thick part of the lens wedge to the front.
This car appears to have the US side marker lenses, installed US-way-round.
Correction 1 plus approximately zero. Stuff always fascinated me. I’m 57 and my matchboxes that had the composites euro lights fascinated me As did the occasional glimpses of them on euro-based movies. Especially these vertical format ones as they were in contrast to the ones I saw IRL They were mysterious and if you are one Who anthropomorphizes car fronts, Sealed beam lights always look like normal eyes whereas the composites looked like an eye with all white. Spooky and cool.
Aren’t those wheels more recent than the car?
If they had column shift in 1970, why did they change in the next generation?
No; they were factory optional beginning in 1969. Of course these could have been added later, but the V8 300SELs were quite commonly sold with them.
For the same reasons so many other column shifter moved to the floor during the late 60s and 70s.
The alloys are a period optional extra, also seen on later W116s and W123s but already used on these since the late 60s. Many 6.3 litre cars have them.
The shift lever could be on the floor or the column, it was up to the customer to decide, I believe, though perhaps the 6.3 was only available with the floor shifter. Mercedes stuck with optional column shifters in their smaller cars till the 80s, i.e. up to and including the W124.
Say, this car looks to have air conditioning, in that period not-purely-hang-on-but-not-quite-integral way. Looks a lot like the “POE” (“Port Of Entry”) A/Cs, made in America by the likes of Frigi-King, fitted to many imports for the American market. Volvo I know for sure, and I imagine also most of the rest of the European and probably some Japanese makes. I wonder who made the system on this car, and what sort of compressor it’s got.
I’d guess there’s a Behr in there. Reputation for roaring loudly, too (while not being too cool, as I am also not).
Ah, hadn’t thought of Behr, but that’s probably a good guess. Did they make their own compressors?
Late to this but this Mercedes is absolutely gorgeous outside and that interior is just perfect. Take this car over any 2022 Lexus or Mercedes any day of the week because in looks they can’t compete. This car has that “presence” that few cars can reach.