The W115 puts a tremendous load on the front outside tire, and remember it was designed for bias belts, radial tires were pretty exotic in 1966. Remember, too, that there is also a great deal of down force on the outside front tire, increasing the adhesion to the road. The combination can exceed the holding pressure on the bead, causing a blowout when the tire comes off the rim. Scary.

On the Corvair, the rear outside tire comes off when the tire tucks under too far and the rim hits the road. Stupid design, the original had a camber limiter on the control arm and the president of GM, Ed Cole, forced the design team to remove it because it cost $1.50 per car. Poor economy, as every GM exec with a teenager got one, and they nearly all wrecked them, some were killed. That problem was that the swing arm rear end could swing so far under that it would "jack" the rear of the car up -- when the rim hit the road, the car flipped, and since the door pillars were a single sheet stamping, the occupants were usually crushed when the top got mashed down to the seat backs.

The W108 has a swing arm rear end too, but there camber is limited by shock travel enough that it won't jack. Much to heavy, anyway, unlike a Corvair, plus the engine is in the front. However, under severe cornering, the camber can get negative enough to cause the rear tires to slide. Probably safer than a head on slide.

If you think a W123 rolls too much, check the rear sway bar bushing and links -- if one or both of the links are gone, believe me, you will have excess body roll in the rear! Same goes for the front sway bar, too.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!