Growing up in New Orleans' French Quarter in the '60s, I recall seeing what I now know was a Fintail parked on a street near my house. It was greyish-blue, with tan leather seats (with those little "ventilation" holes, remember?). No idea which model it was.

During my car model phase, I built the only 2 Benzes I ever saw back then in kit form. The first was a Ponton sedan, molded in black, with chrome for the wheel caps and big headstone-shaped grille. The other was an AMT 1/25 scale kit of the 300SL Gullwing, which -- unaware of the car's racing ancestry -- I painted metallic red and with racing decals and bare black wheels. (Since then, Tamiya came out with a kit of the 500SEC. I'd love one, but it's hard to find.)

After that, to me, Benzes were "just" the cars villains in James Bond movies drove. Sometime during the '70s, though, DBAG undertook to change their image with Americans, and by the end of that decade, MBs were glamourpusses. I still knew nothing about the various models ("What's a 300SD?") until I bought my first Benz in 1997.

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-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino