Junkyard Gem: 1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL

The to start with vehicle that Mercedes-Benz formally named the S-Class was the stately W116, built for the 1973 by means of 1980 model several years. Until eventually the mighty 450SEL six.9 came on the scene for 1975, the king of the W116 sedans was the 450SEL, boasting a advanced V8 engine and establish excellent that no manufacturing vehicle of its time (other than the Toyota Century, possibly) could touch. Because the W116s held with each other so properly and tended to draw in the kind of entrepreneurs who will not neglect maintenance, sufficient of them have survived in day-to-day use that I continue to uncover the occasional instance all through my junkyard explorations. The previous discarded 450SEL I discovered, prior to this a single, was a gray-market place ’79 introduced more than from Europe today’s California Junkyard Gem is an earlier U.S.-market place model in even improved condition.

Junkyard shoppers tend to yank the gauge clusters out of W116s proper away, in order to market them on eBay, so I can not constantly choose a glimpse at the total mileage on these autos. This a single exhibits a amazingly reduced figure.

With its MB-Tex upholstery, the inside continue to appears to be like quite fantastic.

I am quite absolutely sure you could set MB-Tex on the outdoors of a vehicle and it would glimpse just as fantastic soon after four decades.

The SOHC, four.five-liter V8 noticed right here came with a score of a hundred ninety horsepower. That does not seem like a great deal when as opposed to the huge electrical power figures of twenty first-century S-Classes, but hold in mind that the seven.seven-liter pushrod V8 in the ’74 450SEL’s primary Detroit rival, the Cadillac Sedan DeVille Fleetwood sixty Brougham, created just 205 horses (the seven.2-liter V8 in the ’74 Imperial set out 230 horsepower).

People American luxurious yachts did not price tag wherever in the vicinity of as a great deal as this Benz, nonetheless the rate tag on a 1974 450SEL began at $seventeen,four hundred (about $ninety six,three hundred in 2020 bucks). The Fleetwood Brougham price tag $9,537 and the Imperial four-doorway hardtop went for $seven,230 that year. If you most popular a Lincoln sedan, you experienced to pay back $8,238. In the meantime, the actual higher-rollers have been prepared to shell out $33,five hundred for a new Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.

The fantastic information for Bay Place W116 entrepreneurs is that autos like this hold the circulation of fantastic junkyard sections coming. However, it is unhappy to see one more a single about to get eaten by the crusher.