anyone here from san diego that has a Brown 450SLC? we were driving 94 west a little after noon on the 17 of january. i had always thought of them as slow, but i had to back off at 120. he was going but throwing alot of fuel smoke. anyway just curious if he was here.

Hehe...maybe if it was a tan 300SD it might be me!

Hope you find the person...I love hooking up with people on the road from the forum. Its fun!

Having had a 450SL, I can say that I hope that guy didn't have to stop fast. W107 cars are a handfull in panic stop situations. Being so nose heavy and having wimpy brakes make for a white knuckle stop every time. Anyways, it might have been a rare 450SLC 5.0 liter. Those cars can get up to around 145mph, if you dare.

Oh my !!

Really I am kind of surprised the R107's had poor brakes. Slam on the brakes of a W126 over 100 no problems it just stops.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

A euro 280SL R107 solves all problems with the 107s we had, the nose is so much lighter and it makes more HP then the 4.5 V-8.

__________________
Adam Lumsden
(83) 300D
Vice-President of the MBCA International Stars Section

honestly the way that thing was smoking i thought he was going to throw the chain or blow a tire

A w126 has a real suspension. A r107 has the same brakes(except vented rotors) and suspension as a 1969 220D. Mounted on a weak subframe that tends to crack, making the wheel fold up under the car when the lower control arm comes loose. With age, the four subframe mounts also make it feel worse than a mid '80 GM product. Never mind that the rear suspenion is also the same as on a 1969 220D. The rear spings tend to sag with the weight. Overall, a huge money pit. With no residual value.

Early this morning, coming back to SoCal from Las Vegas, I set the cruise control @130MPH for maybe 15 minutes. This is in a 1976 450SL with just under 80,000 miles. No smoke, no handling problems, and not too much wind noise.

The brakes are much better on the 450 than on my 300D and 300SD. I think I can put 450 vented rotors on my turbo diesels and mate them with Porsche 911S alloy calipers. That along with much heavier rear sway bars should be a great improvement.

__________________
You can get farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.

1984 300D
1985 300CD
1980 300SD
1993 SL500

Yes, it does depend on the individual car. A 80k 450 would be much tighter than my car, it had almost 200k when I sold it. My biggest gripe with the 450 is that the aftermarket parts wear out in a couple of years. Getting oem parts would be nice, but my local dealer makes a big deal out of getting a oil filter for such a "old car". I had mine for twelve years and drove it 70k miles. It ate three timing chains and needed a fourth when I sold it, the replacement rear springs were sagging, all the rubber parts I replaced(mounts,bushings,ect) lasted only three years or so, oh I had the radiator recored three times, the rear axle shafts replaced once, the transmission resealed, ad nauseum(sic). I suppose my experience with the brakes was due to the use of aftermarket rotors and pads. These cars have a character all their own, each one drives different, if I mine had been a good one I would have kept it. I spent over 15k in repairs and the car was never right. It was a one owner car that I bought from my cardiac surgeon. I later found out it had been wrecked when it was a couple of months old and had suffered almost 18k in damage in 1977. It really should have been totalled(sic). They even welded the flaps in the trunk shut for ventilation. My eardrums would pop all the time. Well, sorry to keep rambling on, but that was my oen experience, others would probably be better.