No, the ignition had the transistorized ignition originally, but the previous owner converted it over to the standard igintion when the switchbox failed. It has the correct coil for standard ignition.

I think the platimums are going to work fine. I've had a cold weather start with the cold start valve coming on. I also had the car up to 100 MPH on the interstate for a test run, so I would say that is under load. I would have puched it further, but there's always other traffic and the state patrol.

I will see how well they work, but I think you can use platinums in these cars, at least the straight six. I've also discussed the resistor pulg issue with an electrical engineer friend (who owns a '65 Mercedes by the way) and he says that the voltage drop across 5K of resistance at these voltages is negligable. The platinums look like hotter spark plugs anyway.