The 1970's Beast - Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9 | Tyrrell's Classic Workshop 

My boss had a 1977 US model. They came with full leather and automatic air conditioning. I believe the 1978 6.9 was the first car in the US with ABS. The 1978 was $52,000 a fortune at that time I can also confirm the 140+ mph!

Not the Junction 4 to Junction 7 of the M3 surely ? Very busy with plod there....

@@brownmcpherson5724 no it wasnt the first, chrysler and ford vehicles had abs in late 60s and early 70s

@@288gto7Fiat used an electronic Anti lock ,which was bought by Bosch as a System. It was the First in Mercedes in 1978 and the First fully electronic control. Mopar used Bendix and Ford had their own Sure track but thr idea goes back to the 1920's.

@@Mercmad yes merc system was the first fully "digital" electronic one. Suretrack was analogue electronic IIRC, dunlop also had maxaret developed from aircraft abs and that was purely mechanical and used in jensen ff in 60s

But at the same time it does add to the feel. If you remove the counterweight...it will feel different. I work as a locksmith and have repaired hundreds of door handles both with and without a counterweight.

Does this channel have the most informative commenters , I'd say so !

Very interesting. I had to work on my 123 handle it's very similar on the outside but does not have the weight, but believe it has similar anti crash open properties.

@@bigmacdaddy1234 that is an unintended consequence not it's main purpose.

@@edrcozonoking Not for you to say whether or not it was unintended or not, as you were not part of the design and engineering teams. But we do know that It served both purposes.

Yes, I thought that too. Iain paying due reverence!

😂😂

Now I can't unsee it. Thanks for that.

A true British gentleman and ace mechanic..🔧

Hmmn... I, too, noticed; and wondered if that was deliberate or accidental. Now I'm wondering whether Iain's likely to confirm or deny! Regardless, I'll be paying attention in future and if I see more evidence. On second thoughts, that might not be conclusive either; we would need to look into past videos... /rabbit hole

Absolutely. From the worst to the best.

In that case have a look at the Alfa Romeo 164 door latch and pin set up. Double pincer design.

I guess Diana Dors would be proud to call one her own!

This is so geeky!!! This channel - both original content and comments - is priceless viewing

As someone who takes great interest and notices the detail of the handle and latch design, I feel far more normal after seeing this!

Oh god, they are wonderful.

Looks nice m8

Men would stop and stared open mouthed at these on the 70’s and 80’s .This one still has it.

Irish reg

@@Blingrhino31 Yes, I bought it in the UK in 2010 - originally a Herts reg, RNK nnnR

"State sponsored vacation. " 😂😂😂

hey mate, are you in Melbz? would love to see it! cheers

You got her running?

You are so lucky to have this silent power ❤🇹🇭

Dad always said, don’t listen to stupidity about outrunning police. Radio signals will always be far faster than any car that will ever be made!

@@hugoglenn9741 LOL! You should read Hunt's former wife's account of that drive - p637-8 of "Shunt" - a fabulous autobiography on James Hunt's life. You'll believe it when you read all about him!

If you do a search on RU-vid for “Rendezvous 1976” you’ll find the full short film. How anyone got away with that is beyond me. I lived in Paris for 15 years and it’s a such a nightmare trying to drive there that the only time I used my car was when I was going outside the city. The movie was filmed on an early August morning, and Paris does empty out somewhat in August because so many Parisians leave the city for vacations, but it’s still pretty busy. If that driver/director tried that now, he’d either get stopped by the police quickly, or he’d get into an accident.

I remember that short film, l was disappointed when it wasn’t a Ferrari 275GTB.

@Chris Rhodes, yes, that is the original mad-dash-on-public-roads film, but the Ferrari sound track sticks in the throat. Apparently he sought permission from the authorities, but was denied, and then went ahead anyway. Nice lady at the end...

@@Desertduleler_88 I wasn't disappointed it wasn't a Ferrari. I was impressed it was a Mercedes.

@@ShervinsGarage They sold videos on vhs stating it was a Ferrari.

Oh really, it's a legal thing? Any source for that. I've got a 280 123, it's just under 2750cc so often wondered that!

Yeah gib source

The precise number of ccms determined the annual tax a car owner had to pay in Germany. To round 6834 ccm up to 6.9 L was done for marketing reasons and not because of legal requirements.

@@solsol1624 the Citroën CX 2400 was also only 2332 ccm, it is the engine from the DS23 so this was nothing new..

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Thanks for increasing my understanding of Citroen suspensions and nitrogen , I think the 'nitrogen in tyres' became a fashion at some point . I'd heard a story that race cars used it as it expanded less than air due to temperature change , so less change in pressure and less change in handling . I believe race teams also used nitrogen (?) in the air tools used for tyre changes , as it gave some performance advantage , not sure how.

I personally thought nitrogen was so repair shops could charge for tire fills. "Nitrogen sir, that'll be $20 please". AFAIK it expands less than compressed air because the moisture content is close to zero.

Tobias, a particularly German answer if I may be so bold!😇

Kudos, I hauled bulk cryogenic liquids for years.

Climate scientist as well as A/C expert, eh?

The thing is , if you compare a W116 or R107 with later cars ( or some earlier ones ) is the weight of the doors , and they way they thunk shut .... actually the doors on my R129 were also pretty solid . Porsche 911s of the same period are equally well built - but they all come from Stuttgart !

Very interesting- thanks!

I've added a few line breaks to your text: Hi Iain, from Sydney, Australia. USA premium cars from the big 3 manufacturers at the start of the 1970's all offered ABS braking. Lincoln rear axle only from late 1966 for the my'67 cars and EVERY Lincoln was so equipped to get the buyers used to the ABS brakes. For the Imperial, Chryslers engineers had gone all out offering from1971 electronic full 4-wheel ABS with a multi-channel computer in behind the dash. GM's 2 premium divisions along with GM's AC-Delco division were working on something far greater, they missed for 1971 models due to strikes & disputes, 1972 Cadillac & Buicks could be optioned with GM's AC-Delco's Trackmaster which was an electronic combined ABS and Traction control system, also controlled by a behind dash analogue computer. The 1974 GM big cars could have this added to with the ''full safety pack" which included airbags "Air Cushion Restraint System" and pretensioning roof mounted seat belts. The seatbelts are something else as they are wired and linked to G-force detecting Mercury switches around the car which are linked to Trackmaster & the 2 phase ACRS airbag deployment sensors and the self levelling suspension. HOW THIS WORKS, if you "nail" the gas pedal from a standing start there is no up at the front and down at the back suspension feel, otherworldly forces eject the car forward level like a bullet and there is no rear axle wind up either with the car wanting to twist down on the right rear suspension. I own a 1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Talisman (1700 units made), long wheelbase premium sedan, also with self-leveling via its air shocks suspension. Cadillac's most expensive product since the 1957-58 4 door Eldorado Broughams. I have owned it just over 40 years, it's elderly German first owner de-selected a sunroof when it was built as he hated them, as do I. Otherwise, it has EVERY option available fitted, he also wanted it de-badged on the sides and no opera lights in rear roof pillars so in Mason's black paint & a pale mustard color interior it is very discrete added to by an unusual and formal roof with tall & very curved & frameless door glass. Made for just 3 model years 1974,75 & 76 with the 1974's having more equipment, which due to low sales from the first Arab oil embargo saw GM "asset" strip '75 & 76 car models to see more sold or cut their losses. When I first bought mine in September 1982 my Grandad's mate that did any mechanical work that was too complex for me, had bought himself a new 1978 Merc 450SEL 6.9 in metallic Rose wine with bone leather. a very pretty color combination. When he first had a look at my "new" Cadillac he was amazed at its list of advanced safety features and that they had been available in 1974, however very expensive in those times, so few people would pay the extra to get that equipment so most of those advanced features were pulled from GM's equipment lists for another two decades or more. Best to last Iain, this has been my main car for the past 40 years, I own several other lovely period cars, however this has been the favorite, bought with 102,700ks on in 1982 as Australia went metric from January 1974, now in December 2022, it has 704,000kls on it !! Mr taxman has paid for its maintenance as it has been registered for business use, so it looks and drives like it was/is new, as I knew I would never get another in the condition this one was in, so it has been driven with care and serviced to last. In all those miles, in all weathers, in heavy peak hour or light rural traffic it has never had a bump or a scrape. This car does not drive like a floaty softly sprung American car and its certainly not rollie poly either, it has a great deal of poise more like a modern vehicle push hard into aq corner and the car stays level and grips like a leech to flesh. It shows that considering its 3180 kilos dry weight plus 6 meters long & 2 meters wide what American cars could have been like if owners had been prepared to pay for the modern equipment that just became sidelined.

@@erik_dk842 Say that again please

I think it would be really nice to see a back to back comparison of the 6.3 vs the 6.9 . Incidentally , I was in George Harrison's 600 a few weeks ago - wonderful car !

@@derekheeps8012 Lucky you. :) I've never been in a 600 but I watched Jay Leno's video on his, on his RU-vid channel--amazing technology for the time. I've never driven a 6.9 but I've driven 6.3 AMGs--they're rocket ships on wheels.

So glad you enjoyed it. Welcome to the channel.

Well said…I noticed that when I heard him say it but knew some other happy pedant like me would have commented on it already…. I had a conversation with someone on the phone from my energy company that was trying to talk about electrical energy usage in kW per hour…

Correct.

Can't have push buttons now...I was involved in designing the handles for the E46 BMW and we had to have ones that were easy to grip and lever for the fire brigade in case of an accident.I was present at the side impact test and while the door was slightly jammed a good yank on the handle opened it.

@@adams7405 that’s a very interesting point, there are so many factors to consider, it would be beyond most people!

Yes, that was a US dealer thing and almost every US car (70s-90s in my experience) got pinstriping. My brother has two twin 1993 190E Sportline Limited Edition cars that are identical except having two different styles of pinstriping as they came from different dealers.

In the mid 1990s I worked for an American company with their Swiss owned company. The American director who started the office bought one of these and I ended up to keep the thing for a few months when he returned to the US and spent the time in organising the import to Florida. Probably the monster is now riding up and down Boca Raton, the thing I remember is the plethora of gadgets and the thirst the thing showed every time I ran it.

I was based at Great Lakes Naval Training Centre in the mid ‘80s, one of the German sailors brought a 450SEL 6.9 with him over to the US, I used to drive it a lot, still one of the greatest motoring memories I have…..

There’s a great drive story where David E David from Car and Driver, his wife, and Mel Nichols from ‘Car’ take one of these across the US back in the day, with the aid of a CB radio to avoid getting constantly nicked for speeding. It’s in Nichols’ book, “And the revs keep rising” but I bet it’s also in a Car and Driver archive article somewhere.

Look at my recent comment about mechanical injection

The main thing about the M110 ( and I have had many - W114 280E , W123 280E/CE/TE , W116 280SE , W126 280SE and R107 280SL - the only one I never had was the 280GE but maybe one day ) was the howl like a jet engine when you got close to maxing them out . Wonderful engines , but just as thirsty as the V-8s .

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The same safety team was responsible for reshaping and padding the shift knob so that it could not fit in a human eye socket.

Later on Safety design rules restricted the use of push buttons particular those with protruded above the grab handle.

Volvo did the same. They had their own forensics team that would go to all Volvo crashes with deaths or serious injuries and then buy those cars back to analyze real-world crash data unachievable in controlled environments. Interesting fact : there were many years without a single fatality recorded for drivers or occupants of their top model SUV XC 90 since its introduction. I know that Volvo drivers have different profiles but they still get hit by other vehicles. And whenever USA's car safety regulators changed the tests and norms for the achievement of their "five star rating" for the crash safety BMW and Mercedes-Benz would struggle due to differing European norms while comparable Volvos would have better results until the new models showed up all adjusted to new norms beforehand.

@@ms-jl6dl In 1996 at Volvo technical training the instructor told us up to that point there had never been a fatality in a Volvo 240.

I was waiting to find the comment mentioning it. The car and colour is glorious.

Yes one's full strength can be applied to the handle in a straight pull without having to use a thumb to release the latch. Mercedes made quite a deal out of that design when it came out.

I noticed that spec...super desirable for a 70's Lambo.