Superstar

The March issue [No. 327] as usual was great. The article about the fabulous ‘Superstar’ Masters Class–winning Mercedes-benz 190 SL reminded me of one in particular [that] I saw in an overgrown garden that was quite literally slowly decaying in Kent, England. I wanted to

rescue it, but was in the process of restoring a vintage Rover at the time. Fortunately the Mercedes was sold and restored along with a rare Bentley that was in the same place, fortunately in a shed, which had provided more protection.

I have always admired very much all Mercedes cars. They represent good-quality engineering with outstanding levels of performance and reliability.

I travelled in an uncle’s 190 saloon for many years — it was a great car and always reliable. He was sorry when he sold the Mercedes, as the Daimler replacement, although a very nice car, was a completely different story, but not perhaps typical of the marque.

Then when I read about Cass Shavez’s FX4 Taxi, it also brought back memories I had of these very versatile vehicles. Working and living in London, I must have travelled in hundreds of them.

The photocopy enclosed is [of] a car that belonged to a friend who can’t identify it; neither can I. My guess is [that] it’s a Mazda — maybe someone will know what it is. I have been an avid reader of

New Zealand Classic Car magazine even before Allan Walton’s published letter about my many memories I had of various MGS, which are all great infectious classic cars.

As usual it’s consistently a greatquality magazine. I sometimes wonder how you do it, but I’m forever glad that you do. Ken Braddon, Blockhouse Bay, Auckland Hopefully one of our readers can identify the car and let us know. I’m with you on it being a Mazda; my guess is that it’s a mid ’60s 1500 saloon. We sometimes wonder ourselves how we do it as well, Ken. AFW