The great thing about Mercedes' rear wheel drive vehicles is they are superbly balanced in many ways. The answer to your question goes to one of those balances: traction. Specifically, limited forward traction is proportional to the stopping and turning traction. In essence, if you don't have enough traction to move forward, then you wouldn't generally (if you did get going) have enough traction to stop or turn either.

Weight over the rear wheels helps a lot... full fuel tank and about 100 pounds of sand or litter increases traction but does not upset the balance.

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Michael

1988 300 SL (5 Speed)
1994 E320 Wagon
1997 C230