Mercedes Youngtimers

It was summer 1991 when we were 3rd grade high school students and decided to see Paris with my friend. Hitchhiking. From Miskolc, Hungary. Well, the project was succesful and this was the time of my first serious MB experience.

On the way back home we stood in Karlsruhe on the Autobahn and already felt very experienced which car to thumb. To be honest, we knew which were the cars that would certainly not stop. Based on that we were quite surprised when a black two-door Mercedes slowed down. The second shock came when the windows opened and the white-haired driver, appr. 70 years old asked where we wanted to go. Icy air came out of the car and this was definitely science fiction for us. He apologized because of the space in the back but I really did not care, I sat in the front. The trunk simply ate the two soviet aluminium framed bagpacks and my redneck eyes starred when somebody or something gave me the belt after closing the door.

The kind old man had some factory and I still don´t know if he had always been driving like that but we were truly shocked during the ride to Munich. With the left hand on his thigh, the right elbow on the armrest he chased the car at full throttle. The black coupe took position in the overtaking lane and if sometimes we had to brake to 100 mph because of some sleepy driver we were immediately horrified by bonnet-lifting full throttle accelerations reaching 155 mph with an evenly walking speedometer needle. Who cared at that time about the leather seats, the beautiful wooden trim… In Munich we were simply sluttering. Grown up in Trabant, Wartburg, Shiguli types, for a hungarian guy this w126 series 500 SEC was a true shock. Later I realized that my body does not raise enough antibodies against the coupe-virus which I got on this trip.

First things first: back home I bought this 1:26 diecast coupe made by bburago. At that stage it was nothing else than sheer dreaming.



Years later I kept on saying to my younger brother that one day I will have a Mercedes. The 1990´s hungarian used Mercedes market consisted mostly of the greengrocer series, badly tortured W123 types. Havnig nice memories of the W123 estate on our Paris trip I thought that this type is the ultimate one. The W126 was beyond any dreams. I had no money, of course. So my first car was a rusty Audi 80.

I had to wait until 2006 only. My colleague has won a car in the casino and unlike before he was suddenly ready to sell the W124 coupe. Bad for him - good for me. Finally I had a my ass in a blauschwarz coupe, I was pushing the star smiling like a baby with a full nappy. It had no V8 engine and was not a W126 but it was a Mercedes Coupe and mine. Last year I already passed the classical idiot´s test: I bought a W124 estate on ebay without checking before. It seems now that I was lucky. No major things, this one serves really well.

 

Fine, the experienced would say, but how far is that from a W126 coupe… hang on.