Got to jump in on this one. We live five miles off the pavement on a gravel road in the costal Mts. of Oregon. In the summer the unpaved roads here turn to washboard from the logging trucks.

My 81 SD with Bilstiens handle the rough roads pretty good my 81 SD with KYB shocks is not as good my 86 Euro 500SE is down right scary and my 74 240 D manual is by far the best car I have ever driven on on bad roads.I take the 240 on some jeep roads during hunting season that you have to see to belive. It is very controllable on gravel and can be tossed around much better than the other three.

The 500 SE taught me an early lesson if you hung the tail out even slightly on gravel upon correcting it it would oversteer dramatically and dive for the left dicth, I think part of the problem with it is that it hangs in much longer and at higher speed than the other cars.On paved curvy roads it handles quiet a bit better than the SD's.These roads really tear up lesser cars, I rebuilt the front ends on all but the 240 when I got them............

William Rogers..........