Mercedes-Benz 190SL

This is certainly the longest break I’ve taken since the last post was published in early January this year. But as always, YOUR DREAM AUTO strives to bring you write-ups of rare cars in the flesh and keeping with that tradition, we have a 1961 Mercedes-Benz 190SL for you guys to digest today. 

This particular model was one of the early SLs beaten by only the 300SL by about a year or so. There are many out there who may get confused between the 300SL and the 190SL. The 190SL in simple words was actually the ‘poor man’s’ 300SL or maybe I should say ‘more affordable’ considering the price of the 190SL which was still expensive during those days and even now. There were about 25,000 units of the 190SLs built right from 1955 to 1963 and as expected based on it’s model designation, it came with a 1.9 litre, four-cylinder, single cam engine coupled with a four speed manual gearbox. They were all built as roadster models but there were some which came with a detachable hard-top.

This particular car today is a 1961 model of the 190SL. The owner has been patiently restoring it for the past three years of which most time was spent sourcing for certain parts in order to maintain it’s originality. As you can see from the pictures attached, this is one car which has certainly gone through a thorough restoration process with no expense spared right from the exterior, interior as well as it’s engine compartment and mechanicals. 

Like most classic Mercedes-Benz automobiles, the design and curves on them are certainly breathtaking. I too was mesmerised by it’s beauty in flesh. Just looking at those lines and feeling them gave me that nostalgic feeling of what these cars were and are till today. Well, do enjoy the pictures as well as the video of a similar car posted below. 

The video:

Updated Section - Parts for sale

We have updated our 'Parts for sale' page. We have a few more Mercedes W108 cosmetic parts as well as very rare classic Mercedes-Benz engines for sale. Do check out the page and 'Contact Us' for further details.

Restoration - Mercedes-Benz W108 280S (part 3)

The part 3 of this series of articles on the Mercedes-Benz W108 restoration is certainly overdue and it’s finally time to do it. If you guys have been following the part 1 and part 2, this article will not be difficult to understand. Hahaha.. Well, this is the last bit of this restoration project that I took on last year. Carrying on from part 2 where I mentioned that the car was painted, the part 3 will reflect it’s final touches in getting the car ready which includes getting all the small bits polished and ensuring that the car will be a complete one once ready.

Car in for some carburettor tuning

There were a number of mechanical items to be sorted out which included fine tuning the refurbished original Zenith carburettors, sending the fuel tank for a full clean up, getting new clutch master and slave cylinders and a few more (I’ve only mentioned what I would consider the major ones). Once all the above were sorted out, it then came to the final cosmetic detailing which included a full interior clean up and also a brand new set of tyres and to accompany the tyres were a set of white walls and it’s sparkling colour coded chrome wheel caps.

It still had a few more interior fittings to do before the car was sent to a motor show for display and below are some of the shots of the car once completed. Some of the photos may make the colour look a little different as they were taken from different cameras but the first picture above is the most accurate one just in case you were wondering what the actual colour looked like. All in all, I must say it was quite a challenging time restoring this car especially when it came to sourcing parts but it was well worth it. Now time to move one to another project which may be another Mercedes or a Jaguar or perhaps, an American? Hhhmmmm... Well, let’s see what time has in store...

Asia Klasika Motor Festival 2014

The months of October and November are certainly not to be missed when it comes to those who love and appreciate automobiles in Malaysia. These two months are when a number of notable automobile shows are held including the one we are talking about today, the Asia Klasika Motor Festival or also simply known as Asia Klasika 2014 that happened over the last weekend. A little bit away from tradition, the previous shows were held together with the NST Car of the Year event but this time the organisers decided to move on their own and it certainly was not a letdown.

1926 Rolls-Royce Twenty Tourer

Historic Motoring Ventures being the organisers, held the event at the beautiful and scenic Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside Hotel. With the number of cars in attendance it was no surprise why they needed a big space as there were easily a hundred over cars and motorcycles on display as well as some for sale at their ‘The Pullman Sale’ section. What an impressive array of cars they had which included a good blend of British, German, Italian, Japanese and many other makes from various countries.

I’ve included a few photos below. As you may realise I did not take photos of many cars as I only took those cars that naturally attracted me. I will caption the photos for easy identification but I must say the two favourites of mine have to be the 1926 Rolls-Royce Twenty Tourer as well as the Mercedes-Benz 500K Roadster which I have previously featured. Haha.. I definitely can’t run too far from my obsession with the British and German Automobiles.

Jaguar XK140

Alfa Romeo GTV 1750

MGA

MGB

Bentley R-Type

Chevrolet Impala

Porsche 911 Turbo

Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith

Alfa Romeo Giulia GTC

 

Alfa Romeo Montreal

Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R

Maserati Ghibli

Mercedes-Benz 170S-D

As always, we try to write good articles as well as feature cars that are collectible or rare. Today’s feature car is totally that, it is a Mercedes 170S-D. As perplexed as you are, I was too as perplexed as you when I heard of this model as I’ve only heard of the 170V and to be honest, I’m more well versed with Mercedes-Benz models from the late 1950s and onwards.

The 170S was the first Mercedes-Benz to be given the ‘S’ suffixes which means ‘Sonder’ in German or ‘Special’ in English. The particular model we are featuring today is the 170S-D of which the ‘D’ stands for Diesel. It is quite similar to the 170V and it initially even shared the same chassis code of W136. (It’s quite odd that the codes Mercedes-Benz had never really followed a sequence which is also evident in the later models such as the W111 which was an earlier model compared to the W108.)

The engine was the 1767cc inline 4 with a four-speed manual transmission which the 170V also shared, although the initial 170S and 170V had the 1697cc engine. One look at the car and you will know that it is a very old car dating from the 1940s with its real timeless vintage design. Cabriolets were also manufactured based on the same chassis to create a wider range of models and towards the end of its production a base model known as the 170S-V was introduced. Between its production years of 1949-1955 there were close to 70,000 units built which included the various specifications and body types.

Below are some of the shots taken, so sit back and enjoy the marvel of engineering by Mercedes-Benz who until the early 90s were known to over-engineer their cars and that’s the reason these old cars survive for more than 70 years. I've also attached a video of all the model variations below.

The video