Mercedes Benz W108 / W109

Still on the Mercedes Benz theme, let’s talk about one of the most iconic cars of the 60s and the 70s, the Mercedes Benz W108. The W108 was the S-Class (‘Sonderklasse’ meaning ‘special class’ in German) of it’s time. It succeeded the Mercedes Benz W111 / W112 (also known as the ‘fintail’) in it’s class. The W108s were built between the years of 1965 – 1972 before being replaced by the Mercedes Benz W116. There was also a rare long wheel base model (LWB) known as the 300SEL produced which was given the designation W109.

Mercedes produced various models of the W108/W109 with various engines ranging from a 2.5 litre inline 6 to a 6.3 litre V8 similar to that of the Mercedes Benz 600 which I will also talk about in later posts. Though the big V8 powered cars never really made it to our shores (it was mainly for the US market), the 250S and the 280S models became popular cars in South East Asia in it’s time including Malaysia and it became a status car for the wealthy especially those involved in business.

My passion and obsession for this model was the reason I acquired one for myself, a 1970 Mercedes Benz W108 280S late last year and is currently being restored. I will be updating on the progress from time to time and meanwhile I shall leave you for the weekend with this clip from the 1978 movie ‘The Driver’ which I’m sure some of you may have already watched it. Do admire the beauty and the capability of the car except for the part where the car get’s thrashed of course. Haha.....

The history of the three-pointed star

Whenever any one of us thinks of a Mercedes Benz, the first thing that comes to mind is the three-pointed star. It is what the ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ is to Rolls-Royce and the ‘Leaper’ is to Jaguar, it’s an icon. The three-pointed star has become probably one of the most recognized automotive symbols of all time but have any of us actually ever wondered what does the star symbolise or why does it have three points instead of four or five? 

Here’s a brief walk through history for those of you who are interested. The three-points actually symbolise the three modes of transport that we have that is land, sea and air. It was actually the idea of Paul and Adolf Daimler, the sons’ of one of the founding fathers none other than Gottlieb Daimler. Gottlieb had actually used the three-pointed symbol to mark the family’s house on a post card with a view of the town of Deutz in Cologne, Germany.

It was then patented by the then parent company Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft or in short DMG and has been in use on their cars since 1910.

Source: Daimler.com

My first ‘sort of’ classic car

My first ‘sort of’ classic car was a Mercedes Benz W126 300SE. I call it a ‘sort of’ classic simply because it wasn’t really a ‘classic’ classic but an old Mercedes. I basically had 2 dream cars when I was young. One was the Jaguar XJ6 Series 3 and the other of course was the Mercedes Benz W126 300SE.

It was more than 5 years back since I started looking for one. I just loved the car for it's elegant looks and styling. The search when on and on and finally I found her. It was a day when my good friend Jon and I actually went hunting for a particular 300SE at a dealer in Old Klang Road. As we were driving to our destined dealer, we passed another dealer that had a similar model with a nice number ‘300’ on it, similar to its model (Just for the record, I’m not a numerology person but I love to see nice cars with nice numbers on them). And so we saw the car we were supposed to go and see and I was thoroughly disappointed with the car as the car looked stunning in the pictures but wasn’t so in real.

Then we decided to drive to the other dealer we had seen on the way and I got instantly attracted to it by just looking at the body. Though she needed a paint work but the body was one of the best I’ve ever seen. This was actually a 100% accident free car I kid you not and the best part was it was actually a one owner car since it was brought in to Malaysia in 1992 (it was a ’89 UK spec recon model). And that is how it started. I will give a detailed description later on the restoration process but unfortunately I don’t have the pictures before the restoration as my previous hard disk had crashed, but the picture above was the end result. Till later…

My passion for automobiles

Hhmmm.. My passion for cars.. Where shall I start?

Well, my passion for cars started way back when I was a kid in pre-school. Having a dad who was passionate about cars certainly did influence me. Although he never had a collection of cars and he actually gave up his dreams to own his dream car in order to ensure that his children (one of them is me of course) always had the best, he always took good care of his car as well as cars belonging to others. 

Being a meticulous person, he always ensured that his car was always well maintained, serviced on time, all faults were immediately attended to and most importantly it was always clean. He used to personally wash the car every other day including cleaning the engine which he will take his time to do so ensuring every part of the engine bay is clean and free of dirt and dust. Till this day he still washes his car as well as all my cars of course. 

And so, that’s a little about my dad for now and basically how I started developing an interest in automobiles. The first car that I actually fell in love with was a Jaguar XJ6 Series 3 (that explains the reason I own one now). It was actually owned by a family friend of my late mom’s who happened to be a corporate figure at that time and still is. This was if I’m not mistaken in the year 1988 or 89 where he also had a BMW 7 series E32 together with the Jaguar. It was love at first sight for me when I first saw the Jag. A breathtaking sight it was for me even at that time and it was ever since I’ve always wanted a Jaguar XJ6 Series 3.

Well that’s all for now but just a caution, you may notice that I’m a little biased towards the classic Mercedes Benz and Jaguar marque as I find these two to be one of the finest if not the finest automobiles ever built. They may have their pros and cons but they are certainly remarkably well built cars.