Old 300D Performance

[coldwar]

OK- so I've had "Pearl"- my lovely W115 Chassis '76 300D for about a month now, and having gotten over my "filter foibles", am now giving it some serious driving. I take special interest when so many on this and other forums speak about how utterly slow their Diesel Benz's are. I'm not finding this to be true with my car. Definately not as quick as my previous darling- a '91 Passat with the 16 Valve gas engine, but I would say the old 300D is "respectable". Considering it only has 77 HP pushing a 3600 lb car with the aerodynamics of a concrete block, I am actually downright surprised at how well it accelerates, and it's ability to maintain 65 MPH. I've owned several old style Diesel VW's before, so I'm familiar with the unique Diesel torque characteristics which actually turns laughable HP numbers into very drivable machines.

There is a particular hill on the 4 lane near home which is a great test for any car. So here's how my recent vehicles stack up against my 300D-

- '89 VW Golf, 1.6 litre Diesel, non-turbo, 5 spd.- speed dropped from 65 MPH to 60 MPH with peddle to floor and not downshifting. (No tachometer)
- '91 VW Passat 2 litre 16V gasser, 5 spd. - from 65 MPH, engine at 3000 RPM able to accelerate to 70 MPH by flooring it, with no downshift
- 2000 Ford Focus with 16V Zetec, 5 spd.- maintained 65 MPH, engine at 2900 RPM, with peddle to floor- would not accelerate (strange considering it had same HP as Passat and was even 300 lb lighter!).
- '98 Cavalier Wifemobile with 2.2 pushrod engine, 4 spd. automatic- engine is at 2300 RPM at 65 MPH- as it climbs this hill it always "kicks down" (probably remains in 4th but Torque Converter unlocks) and revs go to 3000- slight acceleration available but not much
- "Pearl" the 300D with 4 spd. automatic- no tachometer, but with peddle floored, drops from 65 MPH to 60. Transmission does not kick down at this speed.

On this same hill, any loaded up Semi Rig would have slowed to a crawl (probably from 70 down to around 50 MPH) halfway up the incline, just to give you an idea.)

So in my opinion, the car is no speed demon, but it's better than I expected, realizing the difference between measured acceleration and perceived acceleration. Around town driving is almost fun- seems like great acceleration from traffic lights with a nice kick in the pants feeling, especially given that the car starts off in 2nd gear when in "D". If I'm starting off on an incline, I pull the stick down to "L", to give me the true 1st gear, then upshift manually. Works great.

Just from the performance alone, I'm convinced my eBay purchase of "Pearl" has her in a good state of tune. I'm laying her up for the winter, but in spring, I plan to get to a good MB indepentant to get valve clearancess and injectors checked. Also, my hot starts are usually difficult, and I strongly suspect it's the starter judging from what I've read here. Hopefully the starter will hold out until early December, then I'll get it replaced in spring.

Overall I'm a happy MB camper!

Dave