Mercedes Benz S600 - Matt Garrett

Mercedes 600 SEL, 6.0 Liter V12. Black/Silver/Grey, one owner, CEO of major transportation company and car enthusiast, garaged, truly a flawless example of one of the best cars ever. This is the finest early W140 I have ever encountered, costing $133,000 in 1992 puts this car at a $226,000.00 in 2015. Totally original paint, and as nice as a 6 month old car in every aspect. Best of the best in these here. There are a lot of nice sedans made, a lot of sedans that cost a fortune and within minutes their worth nothing, but there is only one sedan that does cost a fortune that actually gives back and contains in its make up, about what you pay for. That car is the W140 Mercedes 600. With over 1Billion in engineering behind it, the Mercedes W140 from 91-99 is probably the finest and most substantial sedan ever produced. There are some really good lower cost sedans that make much more sense for daily cars, but when you combine engineering, product substance and actual performance, this is the top sedan in history. At least in my book. Yes Mercedes kept building Sedans after this, some with even more power using turbo chargers and superchargers, but history will show you what those are. This is the real deal with the real motor. History is really now just recognizing the substance of the W140 given the fact things have not really progressed since this car and many automotive gurus are in agreement with what I am reflecting here. Other than brand new technology, quality has taken a step back since this platform. This is an engineers and mechanics car. Only someone with that knowledge can truly appreciate what is in these machines. This is not a show off, flashy, look rich car, it is a statement that says "I know cars, and I know what this machine represents, and I know how to deal with it"

There are so many neat features on these 600SEL- S600s, I am not going to get into all of them as most are standard. This particular one has the few optional items. The glass roof in 1992 is quite rare, this one has it. This also has the phone system, rear shade, multi disk Becker/Bose System, Tracton Control. That is everything in 1992, its got it. This one also has a set of later OEM AMG S600 wheels on it, staggered 18s. These were not available in 1992, but 18s were in the last years 97-99. The 8 hole S600 16 wheels are saved too. The 18" factory wheels really add to looks and driving on these too. Keep in mind, all W140s are great cars, but you cannot compare an S600 to an S420 or S500. There are MAJOR differences in just about every aspect, but the two lower optioned cars are fine cars too. I have some links below that have some history on these cars that are kind of neat from the day.

Learning these cars in pretty good detail since they were built, I can tell you that a 92-99 W140 S600 with the 48 Valve V12 is a hard running car with a linear powerband that makes it way stronger than its 400HP rating seems. These motors have power from off idle to 6800 RPMs. One thing is for certain, these cars are grossly under tested in their performance. I do not think anyone realizes the top speed is limited by the computer but is in the 170MPH range with the limiter removed. Despite a 111 HP deficit vs a Bentley Arnage and about equal weight, the S600 will literally annihilate the Arnage, the BMW V12 and many others. I can explain why and its not weight, its not HP and its not torque. It's power range. This car has power throughout is wide RPM range with near 7K top RPM as where other cars that do not have 48 valves and 12 cyls, are more peaky and produce their top power in a small range. So 398HP all the time vs 500HP in a couple 1000 RPM range wins every time. This engine was used in Since Magazines sold cars and the people writing magazines always went by rated HP #s equating performance..... People really did not get a full glimpse of the 6.0 liter Benz V12. Being $133,000.00 also left very few people willing to really push it to its limits. BMW, Jag and other V12s are not even close to these in power. Only today are the newer Benz with a blower or twin turbos doing what this car did years before. This car will still outlast the new one bought today in reliability. Those cars will be long since dead and this very car you see here will still be going strong.

Ok, I have gone on about the performance. I have done that as even people that have owned these cars probably never even understood what they had at the time. Very few people ever got the chance to know what these cars could do. However, they did understand the ride quality and driving characteristics. Excellent is the word. With the Benz Hydraulic shocks helping the springs and sway bars (that they took away in later years and ruined the car) these cars were extremely comfortable and had a nimble but excellent and very predictable control to them. I love hitting bumps that normally scare people only to have the S600 go over it like its not there. People say "really, I dont beleive what just happened" Once Benz took away sway bars and let computers take the place in compensating the shocks, the cars really became unpredictable and felt unnatural. You may have seen the later S class CL or SL class sitting on the ground totally undrivable when this system failed too. Pretty silly actually, this system in the W140 was way better.

The other thing that many people have come to know this car as is its structure. The W140 has been called a rolling Vault. The body structure on the W140 is that of a bank safe mounted deep in a large building. Closing the door on one of these tells the story. The doors even close theirselves shut, a feature most people have come to identify with the W140 along with the dual pane glass. People have called the glass bullet resistant, its not really, but its certainly more capable of slowing a bullet down vs 1 piece of glass. The dual glass is for sound first and does add another element of safety too. The W140s structure makes it one of the safest cars ever produced. Lots of info has been written about that with these cars.

One of the aspects of the 6.0 liter V12 cars like the W140 and the R129 are the large GLASS headlamps. All these newer cars have plastic headlamps, new SLs have plastic hoods, some have plastic fenders and more. You can look at any plastic headlamp 2-3 year old Mercedes (or any car) headlamp and that will finish the rest of that story. The use of plastics is an evil that just becomes more and more every year. For the German cars, I would say the late 80s to the 90s was their time to shine. That they did. No other car carried the quality of the top model Benz and many BMW models through this era. And this was their king car.

For the mechanics talk, even though this car is super low mile, mint and well kept, many W140 aspects have to be addressed with age. This one has had all of that done. The electronic throttle bodies were done, the shocks, including the rear hydraulic leveling and accumulators, brakes done for grins, not needed but went ahead, Becker Bose amp was rebuilt as these were ALL temperamental in these year, and many other items. Everything works. Everything! The level of work in this car would cost a non mechanical person over 20K at the dealer, so you have to know these cars to appreciate them or you can go into financial ruin if not. For those that know these, they are easier to work on than an old chevy when you have the knowledge. Every time I work on one, I find myself at awe of the thought and design that went into these cars. This is not some old silly historic race car, some old restored muscle car, not some boy racer track car, not some iconic automotive body design piece of art, its a piece of automotive engineering that rivals just about anything in the world. What you dont see is where this car is king.

Some neat W140 Links;

Top Gear W140 Segment Early W140 1991

Early W140 Ad

W140 Crash Test Video

W140 Documentary Video

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO SEGMENTS ON OPTION OPERATIONS ON THIS CAR!

CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR AN EXTREME BLOW UP!