Ah, the good old Stroke-8. What a legend. Designed by Bracq and Sacco, built like a tank, pioneer of Benz’s post-swing axle era. Between 1968 and 1976, Mercedes made close to two million of these and shipped them throughout the world, where they lived and thrived for what seemed like eons – at least they could, if the tin worm didn’t get to them first.
This generation of Mercedes has been featured in CC a number of times over the years, but chiefly in two flavours: smoky W115 or chopped W114. Tokyo has seen it fit to offer up a happy (upper-) medium in the shape of an impressively clean late model dark blue European-spec 280 saloon.
Mercedes refer to the Stroke-8 as their Mittelklasse car. And it’s true that the W115 fits that description: 4-cyl. engines (and a 5-cyl. Diesel), circa 2-litres, no-nonsense interior and LWB taxi versions – the hallmark of the bottom rung of the Benz ladder. But our car is a W114, the basis for the rather exclusive coupés, with the biggest available straight-6. Upper-Mittleklasse, surely?
Unlike the 4-cyl. and 6-cyl. Fintails, which were pretty easy to tell apart, the Stroke-8 hid its twin personality beneath a nearly identical exterior. Plus the 6cyl. cars were given the lower W-number, for whatever reason. Initially, the easiest way to tell an upmarket W114 saloon from the taxi-like W115, aside from the 6-cyl. cars’ double front bumper, was the rear series number: 200 and 220 meant a 4-cyl., 230 and 250 meant six.
It was all nice and orderly in 1968 when the W114/W115 was born, but things became increasingly complex as time wore on. In 1972, the 220 was replaced by a 230 for the W115, leading to a situation where Mercedes offered a 4-cyl. and a 6-cyl. saloon with pretty much identical displacements. They were therefore badged as the 230.4 and 230.6. In 1973, the 240D was launched as a W115; oddly, the next year saw the “240D 3.0” supplanted it, with a novel 80hp 5-cyl. Diesel.
To further confuse matters, some 250s actually had a 2.8 under the hood – notably, though not exclusively, on the US market from mid-1970. It was the W108’s 2778cc engine, lowered to 130hp. But then in 1972, Mercedes unveiled the 280, which had a new DOHC 2746cc straight-6 producing 160hp (or 185hp with fuel injection).
This makes for a very large family of vehicles, which includes the W114 coupé (but no convertible), a LWB limousine and the possibility of ordering a wagon from a number of coachbuilders (Binz in this case, but also Crayford, Miesen, IMA and others), as well as commercial chassis – the pictured hearse being a standard wheelbase Pollmann job. The limousine, wagons and chassis could be ordered as W114 or as W115, the latter were usually Diesels. However, the 220D Binz pickups were strictly W115 Diesels. Few were made in Germany, but the coachbuilder licensed the design to Daimler-Benz Argentina, where just over 1000 were made from 1971 to 1975. A four-door version was also made – one of the most intriguing (and rarest) Stroke-8 ever, though perhaps not the best-looking…
The Stroke-8’s most notable advances were technical rather than esthetic. The Mittelklasse Benz design had gone through significant changes during the ‘50s, jumping from the pre-war style of the 170V to the portly Ponton and the fantastic Fintail. In the ‘60s, the pace of evolution was evidently much slower.
Bracq played it very safe indeed, just as he had done with the W108 – the headlamps remained in the same vein as the Fintail’s, i.e. quite separate from the imposing grille. This gave the Mercedes saloons a very homogeneous look, with everyone from the humble 200 to the gigantic 600 wearing a similar face (and tail) and fit very well with the firm’s conservative image.
The Stroke-8 is a transitional model in that it began its career with flat taillights, but then someone went all Frog on the Stroke-8’s rear and said “Rib it!” – and so it became, for everyone’s pleasure I’m sure. This distinctive element, debuted on the C107 in 1971, lived on in some form or another on the rear of Mercedes-Benz cars until the 2010s.
The Stroke-8s got their facelift in late 1973. Aside from the ribbed taillights, the most visible changes included a wider and lower grille, a more substantial door mirror and a revised A-pillar that eliminated the front window vents. The W114s lost their double front bumper in the process, making them indistinguishable from their lower-spec stablemates from the front. The wraparound rear bumper, however, remained unique to the 280.
The interior of any classic Mercedes is just a great place to be. It may look a tad austere and old-fashioned, but the seats are unusually comfortable and the impression of quality from every single component is pretty mesmerizing. Another sign that the Stroke-8 was a transitional model was the gearshift placement: Fintails usually had theirs on the column, whereas Stroke-8s like our CC were more evenly split – maybe even tending towards floor shifters, especially for later cars. For their part, W123s were all floor-shifters, save for a minute number of automatics. Our feature car was retrofitted with the old-style pre-1973 two-spoke steering wheel, which is eminently preferable to the sad-looking plastic tiller it had when it came out of the factory.
Since I kind of flubbed the interior shot, here’s a period photo of a 1971 280CE with manual transmission. It’s a good thing that M-B abandoned the Fintail’s vertical speedometer and went back to something a bit more mundane for the W108/109 and W114/115. That vertical speedo was both ugly and rather hard to read. Those kinds of misguided innovations are best left to the likes of Citroën or Lancia.
Underneath its straight-laced exterior, the Stroke-8 hid a pile of new technology. The body’s architecture in itself was allegedly all new, but the big improvement lay in the new suspensions, both front and rear. The former was a type of coil-sprung double-wishbone setup, while the latter was dubbed a “diagonal swing axle” by Mercedes-Benz. They still cling to this term today, but really it was a bolted-on subframe with a semi-trailing arm IRS – a big improvement over the previous models’ “non-diagonal” swing axle.
Other technological innovations included rear disc brakes, improved crumple zones, the aforementioned 5-cyl. Diesel, a 5-speed manual gearbox (only seen on a few late-model coupés), central locking and electronic fuel injection. The Stuttgart boys really pulled all the stops on this one. The only thing they forgot, really, was decent rust protection.
Finding a late-model 280 saloon as nice as this one is not commonplace: only 25,000 of these were made from 1973 to 1976 and I bet a good many of them have oxidized themselves into early retirement – certainly before their engines and/or transmission gave up the ghost – like all the members of the Stroke-8 family. This one obviously has a careful owner, who got it an appropriate license plate number and all that. Just don’t get that beauty wet.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1970 Mercedes-Benz 220D – Ride In Teutonic Luxury (With 65 HP), by Tom Klockau
Curbside Classic: 1976 Mercedes 280C (W114) – Pricy Hardware, by PN
The Factory Mercedesamino, by PN
Through The Windshield Outtake: Mercedes 302C 5.0, by PN
COAL: 1970 Mercedes Benz 220D – Finally a Family Classic, by David Saunders
Curbside Classic Outtake: Late ‘60’s/Early ‘70’s Duo; Nissan Skyline GT (C10) and Mercedes 250 CE (W114) – Parking, Tokyo Style, by Jim Brophy
I came across an early one of these cars for sale in a parking lot somewhere and did a little reading on it – which was when I first came across the “Stroke 8” nomenclature. I used that descriptor a time or two in conversation and nobody ever had any idea what I was talking about. I am glad to see someone with your background in these cars dust off the term. And thanks for that refresher on the W114/W115 thing.
I remain a real fan of these. But did they really rust any worse than anything else of their era? They were certainly not rust resistant the way a Mercedes should have been (given the exceptional quality of everything else about the cars) but they were far from the worst things of their era (which often came from Ford factories).
From my experience, these rusted no worse than their predecessors and most cars of their vintage. Salt use was increasing rapidly in the late 60s and 70s, and everyone struggled to cope with it. And no, they certainly didn’t rust worse than the Fords of that era. 🙂
Undoubtedly the W123 successor had improved rust resistance, but even they could get ugly in salty areas.
Of course this was observed by me mostly from a remote vantage point or when traveling, as out here in the West, these were as solid as it got, and there’s still plenty of survivors around. They are more typically plagued with other issues, but not rust.
Oddly enough this one an the early W123 were built together on the same assembly line. (proof: Tail lights).
And yes – there is no real difference in built quality between this /8 and the W123. Improved rust resistance was result of a special cavity preservation program to “fight” Porsche(Audi) galvanized bodies. It worked quite well I think. But after 30+ years maybe one should better renew the coating.
Oddly enough this one an the early W123 were built together on the same assembly line. (proof: Tail lights).
No such proof; the ribbed tail lights came in 1973, when the W123 was still several years from production.
Test. Pic upload. It’s pretty tricky to find pictures of W114 and W123 on same assembly line, especially when ones (my) german skills have rusted over time.
which was when I first came across the “Stroke 8” nomenclature. I used that descriptor a time or two in conversation and nobody ever had any idea what I was talking about.
Well, it’s a nickname the Germans gave the W114/115. But it never really caught on here, except maybe now in very recent years among the W114/115 cognoscenti. Kind of like the Volvo Amazon/120 series.
if you’d used “stroke-8” in the US back some years back, they might have thought you’d had a stroke. 🙂
“Stroke 8” is a little unfortunate translation for “Strich 8”. More appropriate was “slash 8”, I think.
When the first W114/115 cars appeared on the second hand car market, there often was confusion, when a car was advertised as a “Mercedes 200” or “Mercedes 220”. That way, it was uncertain if a Finntail-Benz was advertised or the successor.
To tell them apart, it soon became a habit to advertise the newer models with a slash. As “Mercedes 200/8” or Mercedes “220/8” (referrig to 1968 – the year of its début).
“Strich” (“stroke”, as you call it) in German is a generic term as well for a hyphen ( = “Bindestrich”), as for a dash ( = Querstrich) or for a slash ( = “Schrägstrich).
I had a W123 250. Same engine and the very last Mercedes with carburettor. Officially there is none left in Europe, so if I had kept it, I would be king of the world. (sigh).
Are you quite sure? I thought the carb 190 was made until 1988…
He’s not.
now that…. is a mercedes.
My first ride in one? A taxi in Amsterdam, in the summer of 1969. We had just arrived there for an extended stay in Austria that summer, and our charter flew to Amsterdam. There was a shiny new 200D at the head of the line at the airport, and my father did a very uncharacteristic thing: he told me to sit in front, and he got in back with my mom and two younger brothers. Very out of character, which is probably why I remember it so vividly.
My father asked the driver to take us on a bit of a driving tour of the city before we went to our hotel. I can still see him rowing the gears of the floor shifter and the thrum of the diesel engine. The car felt so utterly unlike getting into a tired old Dodge cab in the states. A brand new Mercedes! I took in every detail and reveled in how it took the cobblestone streets and such. A highly memorable experience, as were the few other Mercedes rides in my childhood and youth.
If there is ever a QOTD on “What is your favorite Wheel Cover?”, mark me down for these color keyed Mercedes ones if I fail to chime in.
I owned a 1972 Mercedes 250 with the 2.8 liter 6 cyl. from 1989 to 1998. My observations:
–Yes, built like a tank.
–Generally reliable.
–Seats are on the hard side but indestructible.
–Lots of low-end torque (especially in 1st gear with its stump-pulling ratio!)
–Very classy looking and well made, especially in small details.
When I sold it, paint bubbles were forming on rear fenders and over headlights. The transmission was slipping when warm and the brakes were shot. I bought a 1989 Chrysler New Yorker Landau, which compared to the ‘Benz had a quieter engine, a much smoother automatic transmission, softer but almost as durable seats (tufted leather), better air conditioning, and a more comfortable ride overall. It had a cut-crystal pentastar instead of a chrome Mercedes tri-star on the grille. So I considered it an upgrade, to which some of you on this site will cry, “Heresy!”
A very nice example and write up. I owned a ’70 220D for a while and it was a lovely car. Lots of glass and handled very well. First gear was definitely a stump puller and I often had to shift into second before even clearing an intersection. Mine was an enthusiastic ruster unfortunately.
Very nice car and great article.
Just wondering if you are sure about the facelift models loosing the double front bumper. I had a 1975 250 many years ago and it had all the facelift niceties such as the mirrors, rear lights etc. but also large double bumper. But could this have been unoriginal or some sort of extra? Looked nice anyway. The rear bumber was correct, no longmwraparaound as on the 280.
The corrugated Mercedes lights were touted as a safety feature. There’s a whole post here on CC about them.
…and speaking of the lights, 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 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, different hookup, lens, and orientation. The repeater was installed with the thick part of the wedge-shaped lens to the rear 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.
That, along with the left-traffic headlamps on this left-hand-drive car, make me think it is not a European-specs car, but one originally sold in Japan. My hesitation on that was the sideview mirrors, but trawling through the MB parts cattledogs reveals they put door-mounted sideview mirrors on the Japan-spec cars. There was a Japanese regulation requiring sideview mirrors to be visible through wiper-swept glass, which is why so many cars there had the sideview mirrors mounted on the fenders (and the Toyota Mark II had special little wipers for the side glass in the driver’s sight line to the door-mount mirrors) but my counterpart geeks in Japan tell me this rule was sometimes not enforced on low-volume imports.
These machines are tightly held together by some myths.
The styling may have pedigree, but it is dull. If debadged, grille altered a little, many would mistake it for an Anonycar, or on another view, something A Bit Soviet. On either, forgettable, tending in the direction of stodge.
The fabled reliability is as that adjective suggests. Sure, a manual diesel taxi would do big miles, but so would a well-maintained Ford Falcon, the constant-use factor. The petrol fours got smoky quite young, as did the sixes (the twin-cam not as bad). The diffs complained about their boring life at the back fairly early into their careers. They leaked oil like any other of the times, they wore out suspension bits similarly.
The fours were slow, and thirsty (17 mpg in an English test of a 230.4, for eg). The sixes weren’t exactly lightning bolts either, that 250 6 test shown on CC a while back taking 14 secs to 60 (again, the injected twin-cams were much scootier).
The steering was rather vague and twirly – also complained of when new – and the ride, while flexy, was MercedesPunisher, namely, for years and years, it is well-known that the firm refused to fit any rubber bushings whatsoever, meaning that running over so much as a lost pfennig caused aural chaos within. The seats were part of that MP package, hard, shapeless, springy with collapsing edges: in short, plain uncomfortable. Finally, as the firm also refused to fit sound deadening, the cars were raucous.
And all of this, for the brow-beaten customer, at a price nearly as oversized as the comedy steering wheel. “If you say so, Mercedes (why, what one must endure just to drive that badge, Madge!”). Their slogan – Mercedes-Benz. We Decide, You Submit. A Story engineered Like No Other.
A car for a lion-tamer, or not. A car for an accountant, who might dream of lion-taming, or a Jaguar, but is comforted by styling as balanced and squared-off as his books, and resale value of greater comfort still. (The discomfort of the seats, the racket, the fuel bills and slothful accelerations is deductable. It has to be).
Once the myths are removed, once one polishes away mystique, there’s really not a lot more than extensive corrosion left. (Well, obviously that last wasn’t built in, but it wasn’t exactly built-out either. They rusted even in Australia).
Apart from these things, these are wonderful cars.
Yumpin’ yiminy…17 mpg in an English road test means imperial gallons, which is 16.62 L/100 km or 14.16 miles per US gallon. Thirsty, much?!
(Props for “wasn’t built in, but it wasn’t exactly built-out, either”)
Intruiging rear-bumper on the Italian models, especially for the square rear license plates that they used.
And I believe the update of the model was composed of : ribbed taillights, Halogen headlights, integrated door mirrors, safety steering wheel with padded centre and the license plate moved from under the front bumper to the front of the front bumper.
Probably also an electric heated rear window
I suppose it would be dull if we all saw things the same way. I love the styling of this car, those clean elegant Bauhaus lines still get admiring looks today and much positive comment, a truly ageless design.
I bought one recently, an immaculate 1972 automatic 250 with the 2.5 engine. My first impression was just how quiet it is. That’ll be the smooth 7 bearing SOHC straight 6 and the rubber mounted subframes front and rear isolating you from the road noise.
I took it straight out for an 80 mile roam over the South Downs. The steering is effortless as you’d expect from an assisted recirculating ball set up of that era, lacking in the feedback you get in modern cars. The seats are comfortable, but offer little lateral support. The suspension soaks up the bumps well, though she rolls if pushed too hard through the corners, which you wouldn’t do as the tyres are relatively narrow by today’s standards. The performance is more than adequate to keep up with today’s traffic and has some satisfying urge on kickdown.
The quality of the interior fittings is very reassuring. This isn’t a car where bits of plastic are going to crack and break. The glorious bakelite steering wheel and chrome horn ring transport you back to another age. You wind up the windows with muscle power, unlock the doors yourself.
This is the way to buy a classic car. No electronics, it has carbs, no unobtainable electric window motors and door locks to go wrong. Properly rust proofed this car will last forever. The parts supply is excellent and there are specialist breakers in Germany. This is a keeper, I love it and look forward to a future of dignified, refined motoring.