AATISH MISHRA
An old Mercedes has caught Aatish’s attention. Not hard to understand why!
THE OLD-ISH CAR BUG HAS BITTEN ME. And quite hard at that. A couple of weeks ago I began toying with the idea of getting myself a Maruti 800 or Zen. The plan was simple — strip it out, make it as light as possible, put some bucket seats, a cage and harnesses in, along with a naughty exhaust. Something tiny, ridiculous and inexpensive to have fun with. Seemed plenty doable.
Then I went back home to Goa, drove a friend’s Mercedes-Benz W123 and I fell in love just a little bit. Honestly, I had gone in with some strong preconceived notions of what it would be like. Slow, shit brakes, soggy suspension, creaky and rattle-y. This was a car from the ’70s, after all. Mercedes or not, it was old. We’ve been spoiled by how comfortable and sorted modern cars are today and going back to cars from 20, 30 years ago is more often than not a disappointment. How wrong I was!
I climbed inside and the first thing that stood out was how fresh everything was. Credit to the owner and the guys who restored it for doing a stellar job of keeping it this way. The interior was a beautiful, deep blue — the leather in the door cards and seats were without a blemish, and the blue shag carpet had me drooling. Everything worked — the AC, the dials, the speakers. There was a 1-din audio system with Bluetooth so he could listen to music off his phone, and pick up calls on the go. The only real signs of age with the interior were the cracks that have appeared on top of the dash — something I was more than willing to look past what with how brilliant everything else was.
Then I got the engine fired up. A five-cylinder diesel from back in the day. A little noisy and smelly but man, it could move! I assumed that this relic of an engine would be wheezing under the weight of this luxury sedan. But no, its got proper legs on it! It comfortably hit triple-digit speeds and we were doing an indicated 130kmph without trouble. These five-cylinders are a little more effortless than the four-cylinder diesels around, and are all the better for it. Then there was the four-speed transmission. Slick, lovely throws and a clutch that was easy to modulate. This car doesn’t have a tacho — instead it gets a massive clock to tell you the time. But it does have red marks on the speedo that show you the redline in each gear. I’ve had some not-so-pretty experiences chasing redlines in old cars so I stayed well clear of them but this was a diesel and there was plenty of grunt in the midrange.
The suspension was what really blew my mind. I had driven to Goa in the e-tron Sportback and that’s a mighty comfortable car — easily the plushest EV sold in India today. Exceptional by regular luxury car standards as well. So my frame of reference was already in the stratosphere. But this? It was nearly as good! A car from the ’70s! Smaller bumps, ripples and faults in the roads are unnoticeable. It glides over the most atrocious rumbler strips. There’s generous amounts of travel and no bottoming out. There’s a hint of float to it, just a mere hint, and I think it adds to the charm of this car. These luxury sedans from the ’70s really took their ride seriously. With no 56-inch screens to distract you from the driving, all their engineers’ attention was focussed on how to make the ride better.
What kind of money will I have to fork out for one? I’m honestly a little scared to ask. Prices have been rising in the last few years with more enthusiasts getting interested in them. This particular car was acquired in 2017, for a princely sum of `3 lakh. About `3.5 lakh has been spent to restore it to the point it is at today — and that includes the brilliant yellow paint job. `7 lakh. For an experience that is so well beyond a car that costs `7 lakh today. Time to pull out the classifieds! ⌧
What kind of money will I have
to fork out for one? I’m honestly a little scared
to ask