1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]
22 comments
·January 2, 2025dawidloubser
sonofhans
I agree about Mercedes quality. The difference between them and other cars like Rolls or Bentley, I think, is that Mercedes were made to be owned and serviced by regular people. They were built to be exceptionally robust, and that took pride of place (for a while) over technical and luxury features.
The biggest Merc I’ve had was a W126, a 300SDL, and that was magnificent.
doener
The list of notable owner is long.
"Josip Broz Tito, who owned four 1965 LWB 6-door Pullmans, one of which was armoured, and two LWB Pullman landaulets, acquired in 1971 and 1978 respectively (both of these were of the very-rare type where the folding parade roof extends to cover 2/3rds of the vehicle top, only 9 were made with such a roof arrangement and 6 doors, and Tito was the only statesman in the world at the time who had two such cars)."
scrlk
To quote Jeremy Clarkson, who got cut off by a bus whilst driving his 600 on Top Gear:
> You wouldn't do that to most 600 drivers, mate. You'd be in the boot without your head.
https://youtu.be/5GFNxvauy28?t=120
And at the end of the clip, a comparison of Rolls-Royce Corniche and 600 owners: https://youtu.be/5GFNxvauy28?t=497 :^)
hinkley
Hydraulic power windows?? In doors?
Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.
dawidloubser
And hydraulic power back seats, and a hydraulic sun roof (!!) and hydraulic power aerial, and hydraulic controls for the air suspension. Some models even had a hydraulic glass partition between driver and passengers.
Absolute nuts. But the high point of dead-silent, powerful, smooth conveniences no matter the maintenance cost.
technothrasher
I used to have a Ferrari 355 with a hydraulic soft top… sort of. The hydraulics (when they worked) only got the top part of the way up, and you had to manually finish the job. If the hydraulics didn’t work, or the seat and window sensors didn’t work, which was frequently, you were out of luck. If you disconnected the hydraulic system you could do the whole job manually and it was actually faster to do it that way.
peterbecich
In addition to those reasons, the pneumatic system was smaller than an equivalently powerful electric motor, at that time, so I've been told.
TacticalCoder
> Absolute nuts. But the high point of dead-silent, powerful, smooth conveniences no matter the maintenance cost.
Wife's car broke down (probably the water pump or just a loose hose) on the highway while coming back from vacation. As it was a very busy day where we were (France), there were not any regular cab left so the insurance company sent us a driver with... a Mercedes S class 550 (not a taxi but a private driver: no "cab / taxi" thinggy on the roof). It's still as you wrote: dead-silent, powerful and silky smooth.
Diesel engine but as a passenger I honestly couldn't tell, even though I'm a petrolhead and tend to notice these things.
m463
looking at wikipedia:
"In 1963 the Mercedes-Benz 600 was the most expensive car in the world."
That said, I retrofitted a hydraulic clutch on a dirt bike that came with a cable clutch. The precision movement was so wonderful. I guess by carefully sizing the "sending" and "receiving" cylinders, you can easily choose the exact amount of movement or force you want.
hinkley
The best thing about the British roadster I had was that if you were real careful you could get it moving from a standstill in third gear. Compared to the piece of shit X-shaped transmission on a piece of shit Chevy with no torque that I learned on, this was a godsend.
Some of that was the hydraulic clutch, and part the engine - which descended from tractor engine designs. But the other thing you could do on that transmission was stomp on the clutch pedal, shift out of 2nd on the way to the floor, and into 3rd on the way back up. Where your foot was, the clutch plate was, down to the mm. Fastest I ever shifted a car without double clutching.
bri3d
Mercedes love using Anything But Electronics; even into the 2000s they made cars with pneumatic power locks. I believe there was a philosophy that electronic running gear felt wrong.
This trend was not universal as my W260 G-Class has only electronic gear (locks windows, etc.), but I believe this was an anomaly amongst Mercedes models.
jauntywundrkind
And then when they did start replacing all their pneumatics, they used bio-safe wire insulators... That degraded inside the car. Caused unbelievably massive problems.
The 1987 W126 is often regarded as the last truly overbuilt car available from Mercedes. In sizable part because of the switch to electrical systems.
kyleblarson
Recent sales on BaT: https://bringatrailer.com/mercedes-benz/600/?q=mercedes+600
trhway
Back then they were saying that the largest market for MB 600 in 90-ies was Russia. Whether it was so or not, it definitely was the car to drive for the mafiosos and for the government bureaucrats. In the bleak, dirty, poor USSR/Russia those cars looked like they were out-of-this-world, and in many senses they were. They were de-facto separating 2 castes of people - the new elite, so called "new Russians", from the rest. With reaching points of absurd sometimes as for example not much can express better that you're a "coolest" mafioso than driving with open top an MB SL 600 cabrio in -20C in St-Petersburg's strong wind with snow, and trying to look like you're driving on Sunset blvd (coincidentally the most lawless mafiosos were called "otmorozki" - "frostbitten [brains]")
netsharc
Seems like these people drive another Mercedes these days: the G-Wagen.
cpursley
Don’t forget Jeep Grand Cherokees! They loved those things (Brat 1). Worse piece of shit I’ve owned but also my favorite of all time.
trhway
> Worse piece of shit I’ve owned but also my favorite of all time.
that would sum up my experience of living through the 90ies in Russia :) Or as Dickens said:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”
dano
"Why yes, I am a third world dictator."
netsharc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabenzi:
> Wabenzi is an Anglicization of the pejorative Bantu colloquialism WaBenzi, originally used in Kenya to refer to members of the new ruling class that superseded the colonial regime, that has come to refer to the new ruling class in any post-colonial African country. The term usually refers to a corrupt government official, or family member of one, and derives from their being seen as driving an imported car. "Wa" is a prefix that refers to people in some Bantu languages; "benzi" comes from Mercedes-Benz, a car perceived as prestigious. The Anglicized spelling form is more common than the original Bantu WaBenzi.
hinkley
Actual quote from the video:
> “AAAAH! You scared the crap out of me! I thought you were the Shah.”
inferiorhuman
Actual quote from the video:
Why yes, I am a third world dictator. How are you?
I've always been into vintage Mercedes-Benz cars.
A talented and wonderfully jovial mechanic ran a specialist workshop east of Johannesburg, in Brakpan (South Africa).
For a long time he had a Mercedes 600 - similar to the linked video but with the M100 engine naturally-aspirated as standard - in the shop.
That particular car, finished in a cream colour, belonged to Ian Smith (1919-2007), the last colonial prime minister of Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe.
I got to spend a lot of time with the car, including several drives in it, and especially seeing the mechanical bits exposed including the ridiculously cool (silent, powerful) hydraulics that operated every convenience of this car, from power windows to power back seat.
While a Mercedes 600 indeed screams "head of state" or "pope" it gets my vote for the all-time, no-holds-barred, most opulent and classy car of all time with absolutely nothing kitsch or gangsta about it.
A true high point of what Mercedes-Benz once was.
And don't get me started on it's little brother, the W109 300SEL 6.3, of which there was a lovely example in the shop for a few months as well. It drove and operated perfectly, I had the most amazing solo test drive in that car, taking it to 200km/h.
This was in 2003, and the 300SEL 6.3 was for sale for $3,000 and Ian Smith's 600 was about $12,000.
God if only I had the money then! I wonder where both of those rarities, sitting in a small workshop in the East Rand in South Africa, ended up at. Probably exported to Europe or the USA.
Anyway, just wanted to share that small anecdote.
P.S. The Chrome, Leather, and craftsmanship of a Mercedes 600 is far beyond any Rolls or Bentley, of that or any other period. And Mercedes vehicles of that era were made to last decades and hundreds of thousands of miles down to every detail including all the rubber parts. The disposable garbage churned out in the 21st century simply fuel man's insane behaviour to constantly buy, consume, discard.
There was a time when cars were made for a different modality.