As you will read on pages 104-108, I recently enjoyed blasting around the United Arab Emirates in a 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9. What a great barge. I don’t mean that as a slight; it really was immensely good to drive in hot and sometimes rough conditions. On self-levelling hydropneumatic suspension, it handled rutted desert tracks with the same equanimity as it dealt with the fast, billiard table-smooth motorways that spear through the region’s mountains and sand dunes.
In the 1970s this W116 Benz, one of only 7380 constructed, was the epitome of luxury – expensive and rare, with leading-edge technology including that suspension, a fuelinjected engine and anti-lock brakes. Knocking out 285bhp and 405 lb ft was quite something when the average family saloon mustered well below 100bhp on a good day. Today the Benz’s single-overheadcam V8 looks quite simple. And that’s the attraction. The Boys from Stuttgart went straight for cubes. All 6834cc of them.
Until this desert raid, I’d thought the Erich ‘Wax’ Waxenbergerimagined 6.3-litre Mercedes 300 SEL hot rod was the best Benz I’d driven. Although the 6.9 is a bit heavier and makes do with a three-speed auto ’ box because of its prodigious torque, it is the more resolved car and feels unburstable. The 6.3 became known for eating its gearboxes and back axles but the drivetrain was beefedup for this big-block. I also tried a later 560SL for a day on the 1000 Miglia event and it proved awful in American spec with a measly 220bhp, but the problem was the way it felt: soft, loose, front-heavy, and every time I closed the driver’s door it slammed like a tin can. With the 6.9 I had to shut the door three times, every time, because the fit was so tight. Proverbial bank vault.