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You might of heard the story of the Colorado man who had a little affinity for Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3s. (You can read the story here if not.) I understand where this man was coming from because if you really like something, go get four more of them. In his case, the M100 powered W109 just happened to do it for him and I don’t blame him one bit. Now that all five of these 6.3s have been saved and rejuvenated, one of them is up for adoption. Unfortunately, though, the adoption fee is quite steep.
Every time I see a car that is usually expensive, selling for a price that is inexplicably inexpensive, the gears in my head start turning. Could I buy this one on the cheap, fix it up and perhaps not lose money on it? Better yet – could I buy it, not do a thing, let it sit and probably not lose money on it? Thank goodness I physically can’t fit another vehicle in my garages and driveway because when I see cars like today’s, those damn gears start moving.
The W109 300SEL 6.3 has quickly become a collector car that everyone in the Mercedes circles are rushing to snag up. Prices have been going up at an alarming rate thanks to folks like Jay Leno proclaiming his love for it.  I understand where he’s coming from because the 6.3, in my opinion, is one of the finest sedans Mercedes has ever made. It’s also generally considered one of the first “super sedans” – the prototype for not only later AMG models, but cars like the M5. Sticking the M100 V8 into the handsome W109 body and building it to a standard of above average durability and reliability made this car a winner the day it left the factory. The only problem was all the greatness is that it costs a lot of money upfront and even more to maintain at a reasonable level. This is where some solid math skills and judging your mechanical ability come into play when deciding whether to take the plunge on a project like this 1969 6.3 up for bid in Eastern, Pennsylvania.
There are some colors that if you showed me the swatch for it I would never consider it on a car. Then when I actually see it on a car I’m blown away. This color, which I’m fairly sure is Lindgrün and they’ve called Golden Lime Green, fits that bill perfectly. This isn’t the first 911 I’ve seen in this color, but every one I’ve come across has blown me away even though the color itself I would never think I’d enjoy. It’s still probably not for everyone, but I really like it here. And there’s more to this 911E than just the color. It’s one of the rare Soft-window Targas built for the ’69 MY, making it one of the few to possess the longer wheelbase that Porsche introduced for the 911 in 1969. While Porsche had begun soft-window production in 1967 it quickly was replaced by the hard window with which we’re all very familiar. The design is pretty quirky and provides a number of variations of enjoying your open-top driving. By 1969 very few soft windows were being produced and it was now an option rather than a distinct model. This makes coming up with firm production numbers difficult. The seller states that this is 1 of 12 911E in this configuration, a number that appears in an article of Road & Track though I’m not exactly sure from where the number originally was sourced. I’ve seen other numbers quoted in auctions, but all are close to this so we can at least know it’s a rare machine.
Excellence Magazine ran a recent article on the 1969 911S as possibly the best of the early long-hood 911s. There wasn’t really an extensive argument for that claim, but rather it served as a reasonable introduction to the 911 upon which the article was intended to focus. Regardless of whether we feel the ’69 model year was the best, it was important as it was the year Porsche extended the wheelbase across the entire 911 line bringing to these cars greater dynamic stability and, at least to my eye, better looks. As tends to happen, I then came across a nice looking 911S and figured the fates must have aligned for me to feature it. So here we have a Burgundy 1969 Porsche 911S Coupe, located in New York, with a Tan interior and wonderful houndstooth inserts in the seats. It has undergone a full restoration though everything is said to be in its original colors and spec (I assume the steering wheel is not original).
During my searches around the internet for cool cars, every once in awhile I run across an ex-utility vehicle that catches my eye. This is one of those vehicles. A 1969 Mercedes-Benz L408 G Auxiliary Fire Van. Originally commissioned for Fire Department of Heide in Northern Germany, this van has all the pros of owning a fire vehicle without all the cons of owning a fire truck — most notably finding a place to park it. So let’s take a deeper look at this cool old van up for sale in Santa Barbara, California.
