OK. So I've got to pull the head on my 230 to deal with glycol in the oil, but how about just one more drive before it goes down. Off I go, using the manual shift on the old fluid coupler instead of the automatic setting. I push it. Hard. The car positively leaps into the gears! It roars. Straight as a rail. Contained. Competent. Dare I say civilized in a way that is now unimaginable to today's driver. This car is an absolute dream when pushed to its limits.

Of course, I'm consuming my grandkids' inheritance as I push the gas pedal, but what a feeling! This is a car that was built forty-five years ago and it still rocks. Bigtime. What character! I would like to meet the Mercedes engineers who designed the w110. What were they thinking? What were their standards? What magic did they possess that went into creating such a marvelous machine? Where did they get the aesthetic taste to create those wonderful fins and sleek front end?

The 230 is as thrilling to drive as it is to look at. And that is saying a lot. Maybe it's my age talking, but this car is marvelous.

__________________
1981 300TD 310k miles
1970 280sel 172k miles
1966 230 Fintail 162k miles

"Where are we going? And why am I in this hand basket?"

My brother had a 230 I remember it as a good performing sedan. floor shifted stick.

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

They are great cars and generally very well designed. However I have done a repair job or two that left me swearing in several languages (not sure that the car will understand if I only swear in English) and making comparisons of DB engineers to National Socialists.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

I know the feeling! Whether I'm driving it, reading about it or working on one of my babies, it always brings out the little kid in me!!! Enjoy your 230.

__________________
All the best,

J. P. Mose
1968 250SL
1970 280SE 3.5 Cabrio
1987 560SL
1990 560SEL

Two names springs to mind ,Uhlenhuat and Waxenburger . Both were very competent Drivers with race and rally success to their names and both were directly responsible for the development of the W111 Chassis cars using the resources available to them. After WW2 Daimler Benz was a bombed out shell of it's former self and these two guys (Uhlenhuat was actually british born) saw to it that the company was able to build itself up by using the best ideas they could afford to incorporate without spending itself into oblivion.
The chassis design was better than anything else at the time being both tough and competant when driven hard as shown by wins in Rallyes .
Waxenburger showed this by beating the times of a new Ferrari around the 'ring with a 230SL and winning the Macao grandprix event with a stock 6.3.
Uhlenhaut could do a lap quicker than Sir Stirling Moss and demonstrated this after a team of drivers complained of ill handling.