HMC

We met at dorchester mcdonalds, as the young guy (bit of a hero with wife and dog and kid in tow) was en route to a classic tractor auction to add to his collection. It sounds quite risky but we had that instant rapport where we both saw we were enthusiasts and have a level of trust in each other. Certainly from their side anyone who acquires a ropey 20 yo w220 s class in a dimly lit services has the trust 2.0 in the other party. And so did i. This w124 is perhaps unoriginal, but is very nice to drive, doesnt feel like its been hammered and very nice structurally- better than some later 124s i had at half the age of this one. Admittedly that was a very late (hence lower quality) 320 coupe (which i think had been crashed at some point)

Will do, @grogee. technically would be the first go to, but i think he was joking (?) Does the w211 have 7 seats btw?

Yes got it in one, basically the closest post office that also dealt with VED

The boot has the most dodgy bit- basically rather than dyeing the carpet- or acquiring the oem factory bits (ok thats probably impossible) - but instead they seem to have used bath rugs and turned it into Paul Raymond’s Sex dungeon

One working definition of an established classic car using HML…. Numbers fairly stable and a cyclical pattern of rising taxed examples in the summer, and less taxed over winter.

Must be why i like it (and have a German ex wife 😂) Actually it certainly didnt leave sindelfingen like this. Its my first “series 1” which tended to major in dour fabrics and plain interiors that even lots of options struggled to lift. Good thing about the “s1” is that there is less bodycladding so its easier to inspect the sills (and i think they might be less rot prone as well ) So i think this left the factory with some sort of light grey wishy washy upholstery. At some point a previous owner has gone dominatrix on it. The seats are replacements- mb tex pattern rears and boot seats (its a 7 seater) and recoloured leather fronts. The interior plastics are a mix of replacement factory red and recoloured grey. They stopped short of recolouring or replacing the fur flex door seals and the front carpets, (which want dyeing or replacing with factory red stuff) but did recover the boot carpets. The front door cards have mb tex inlays, and the rear door cards have recoloured fabric inlays. Its also got w202 alloys and a later non leather airbag wheel (although no airbag is fitted) So its a bit of a bitsa but one that will be easy to finish off- and the shell is good which is far harder to sort.

Indeed! Tax now sorted thankfully, after a bit of headscratching at the post office.

Standard issue w124- theres probably some sort of German logic going on

my fave bit is the interior - more of which after the post office opens and im not with numb fingers

Its been slightly gifferised with some later mb bits- which make my eyes itch- but its spent almost its entire life life in central london and looks pleasingly rot free. Ive probably had about 25 w124s so immediately went to the front spring perches and rear subframe mounts. VERDICT- they exist.

Why am i freezing my ass off in a dorset village waiting for a post office to open? Well it all began at 5.15 when i fired up the w220 and drove into deepest dorset, to do a swap. For this 230te 7 seater After we did the swap it became clear its on the disabled tax thing- hence freezing my ass off waiting for the post office to open- where im hoping that my v5c/2 will allow be to change the tax category, and tax it.

Was there one at the bo11ox chod sanctuary in france? This could well be 15 years ago, mind.

car would not restart

Fantastic! Loved the engine noise and exhaust note on this. Gearbox never missed a beat whilst i had it (for 5 mins or whatever it was 😂)

Is my w220 s class a bit of a dog? (answer- yes but its fun improving it) But also i wonder if the last but 1 owner got fed up, in part due to an underwhelming mb specialist. in the limited paperwork theres a visit to said specialist in november 23- 1 headlamp not working (i received the car like this) bulb changed, no difference, wiring needs investigating. On the way back from swapping with the passat b5, ominously the other headlamp failed too. Oh dear. After half expecting fucked xenons, or a wiring mess i was suprised to find conventional lamp units, and even more suprised when i replaced the h7 pattern bulbs in each unit and normal lighting was resumed, and has been fine ever since. Add that on the same visit to the “noisy but working airmatic pump” which was faulty (+/- the valve block , and seems only to have been noisy as it had been cable tied directly to the body rather than mounted on bushes- albeit not by them i should add- but this reason for the noise wasnt noticed) Plus the suspension bottomed out after 30 mins resting. I dont know what to make of that- and we dont know the full background- how beligerent the previous owner was, eg taking the car before more money was spent/ being rude/ not allowing them to do their job etc….. But ive sorted a few things just by looking carefully and googling. My googling face is very similar… Next up- the intermittant loss of boost. Its immediately reset by restarting the car. I had this once before on this engine by swapping a MAF- do i feel lucky? I tend to trust single marque specialists instinctively but reading through these scraps of paperwork makes me think twice about implicitly trusting just because they only deal with one make.

I got mine just as the first covid lockdown ended- complete with 12m mot and a suitably appropriate livery (zoom video meetings)

Fast forward to 2023 and kudos to Nathan Wren, a very competitive racer on a national level featured in the top image on this flyer having a crash… As he decided not to banger it and put some time and effort into making it road usable last year. going from this avoiding to this I mean, its far from a good example, but it is still here and being used. When he gets an old phone fixed he is going to send some more pics.

We all know how @LightBulbFun the DVLA have got ever stricter with their v888 vehicle history requests. In my day you could just state you wanted to research the history but AFAIK you just get rebuffed these days. But what if a personal effect has been hidden in the car….. Lets find out….

Rover 75 PATRIOT -prominent union jack stickers to boot -Brexit themed upholstery - no cost option vinyl roof - only available in 1.8 Turbo guise with MLS headgasket holder in boot spare tool tray

Had a quick google of that reg…. Hoping for a circa 1971 cassir fleet photo to be unearthed

Having positive vibes back from the Grandson….

Ive also been having a sniff around a few more recent names on the odd reciept- and a potentially more recent colourful / seedy past is emerging 😂

IIRC these can be quite prone to earthing issues with the battery . With mine i cleaned up the main lead connections and also added a couple more- which made mine crank more reliably in the cold.