Bims MB story.

May 13, 2021,19:24 PM
 

Not quite as cool as Jocke’s though.


My grandfather has owned 5 cars throughout his life, he was born in 1910 and left us in 2001.
He never really went to school and grew up in a pretty poor region here in Flanders were i still live a poor life.
He always told me that he started working at the age of 8 guarding the farmers cows for one cent per hour, that is 0,01 Francs or 0,00025 € .
During the war he was taken to Germany to work as a prisoner and after the war he probably worked again for very little money.
During the 50ies he decided to start his own little company making concrete strucrures, he turned out to be pretty successful and soon bought his first car, an Opel Kapitan ( foto credit ER classics).


After that he earned four more cars, all Mercedes Benz. I remember the last 3 of them.
The first was this one, i think this was a 190 ... with the heckhlosse tail ? I don’t know.

But i do know for sure his second Mercedes was a black Heckflosse (finntail).


His third Mercedes Benz was a W114-115 220D Bar8, exacrly the same as you can see in the last picture of this post.

But the star of the show was his 1982 W123 230 E.
This very car was at the 1982 Brussels autoshow where my mother accompanied my grandfather to choose a new car and to keep his excitement at a low-ish level if possible 😆.
So when he saw this green beauty he went crazy and said to the salesman that is the car he wanted! Off they went to a private room to close the deal .
The sales person asked which engine he wanted, diesel or petrol and my mum quickly responded diesel. My grandfather said he wanted the very car that was on the showfloor 🤣.
That car happened to have the fuel injected 2.3 four cilinder with 136 hp .... shame it wasn’t the 280 E .... .
After some discussion with my mother he signed the deal and bought the car for 630.000 Francs which equals 15.750 €.
A couple of days later the whole family 😁 went to Brussels to have a look at car still sitting at the showfloor, i was 12-13 at the time and was really excited.




When i got my license in 1987 my grandfather allowed me to,take it out whenever i wanted too, he actually also bought me a brandnew VW Jetta 2 door with the famous 1.8 litre engine. I had driven the car on several occasions from the age of 15 even before i had my license but was always accompanied by granddad.
Needless to say that when i took the car out on my own the speeds went up .... significantly... destroying the clutch after a week or so, party because my grandfather wasn’t a particularly good driver and really slipped that clutch for any thinkable manouver 😁.



Fuel consumption those days were around 15 liters per 100 km and that car really flew.
Weight was 1360 kilos which was pretty hefty for that time but the car had 136 hp and 205 Nm of torque.
Zero to 100 took 11,5 seconds and top speed was 180 kmh or 112 mph ... i once took it to around 215 on the clock, on the pics you can see it at +/- 207 but it went a lot further.



In this pic you can see me going for it.
I can still spot the green seats which looked stunning, it had a black dash, an electric sunroof, headlight washers and wipers and optional nets for magazines on the back of the front seats 😁.
There was a five speed manual available for this car but oirs had a 4 speed.
As you can see on the clock speeds thru the gears were:
52 in first gear.
82 in second
140 in third
215 in fourth 🤣.... i’ll never forget the look on the face of that Jaguar driver in his rear view mirror doing 190 when i flashed my lights to pass him.




Notice the license plate 1246L which was still the same as on his first Mercedes.
The blue one was a friends 420 SEC.
You can also spot my black Jetta.



At the concrete factory +/- 1974, me at the wheel of the clarck.



Also at the factory +/- 1968 my brother in his Ferrari 😱.


The Bar 8 W114-115



Conclusion and moral of this story:
1. Never sell the car in which your grandfather took you everywhere, let you drive it as a kid or as an adult 😪, you will regret it for the rest of your life.
2. If i ever buy another car .... it will probably be a W123, preferably with the same 2.3 litre engine.

Hope you enjoyed this little story.

Bim


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First Mercedes

 
 By: 198042 : May 13th, 2021-19:42
Hello Bim You grandfathers first Mercedes seems to have been a 4-cylinder W121 190 first series 1956-59 turtle back/Ponton series with either a gasoline or diesel engine. This was the predecessor model to the finback series W110/111/112. W 120s were very ... 
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Thanks a lot for the info !

 
 By: bimbeano : May 13th, 2021-19:44
Indeed Ponton ... that’s it ! Apparently that car was made in Brussels and it rusted away in two years or so. Warranty ? Never heard of in those days 🤣.
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We all regret several things in our life.

 
 By: bimbeano : May 14th, 2021-18:16
And it involves cars and women most of the time 😁
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Indeed

 
 By: bimbeano : May 14th, 2021-18:17
Who doesn’t remember the epic drives in the cars of fathers, grandfathers, uncles and even friends.
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I remember ...

 
 By: bimbeano : May 14th, 2021-20:53
Beetles, very very old 2CV’s, DS offcourse, 404, my uncle’s Firebird, BMW 320i E30 with the six pot (what a sound), my uncle’s BMW old 728 and 730i, even a ride i the 252 hp 745i. Volvo Amazon of my other uncle and our neighboor, Volvo 240, my fathers lit... 
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My pleasure, we ...

 
 By: bimbeano : May 14th, 2021-18:18
.... all have fond car memories.
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I love these kind stories.

 
 By: George Gently : May 14th, 2021-06:54
Thank you very much for sharing your memories.
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My pleasure GG !

 
 By: bimbeano : May 14th, 2021-18:18
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Thx for sharing this wonderful story!

 
 By: dedestexhes : May 14th, 2021-11:20
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No problem !

 
 By: bimbeano : May 14th, 2021-18:19
I really hope to meet you soon Dirk !
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Very nice story with a helpful moral.😀

 
 By: aris d : May 14th, 2021-15:08
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Haha that moral .... i know 😛

 
 By: bimbeano : May 14th, 2021-18:24
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Bims, thanks for sharing this!

 
 By: vallura : May 15th, 2021-03:55
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My pleasure !

 
 By: bimbeano : May 15th, 2021-21:09
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