As the London Concours runs over three days, the organisers put on a sort of one day, non judged car show for each of the days. This year Tuesday was Aston Martin Day, Thursday was Supercar Day and Wednesday – which I went on – was Mercedes Benz Day.
I spent a lot of my early-mid twenties tinkering with Bruno Sacco era Mercedes. It’s always nice to see them represented at prestigious shows like this. Mercedes of this era are still a great way to get into classic cars in my opinion.
The stacked headlight era Mercedes have always been my favourite though. Obviously they are much older and more collectible so I’ve always been priced out of that market.
One of these are definitely a bucket-list car for me though. They really have a presence.
This is a tribute to Rote Sau (Red Pig). Start-up tuning house AMG took the 6.3 litre V8 from the W100 (more on those later) and put it into the smaller W109. The resulting car, named Rote Sau, went on to win its class and came second overall at the 24 Hours of Spa in 1971.
There were a couple of the W100 600 Mercedes at the show. These were the flagship car for Mercedes from 1963 to 1981. They have a lot of features that you’d find on a modern luxury car, but it’s all controlled hydraulically rather than electrically which makes them incredibly complex to maintain and/or restore.
This is a standard wheelbase W100 saloon.
The W100 was owned by a lot of celebrities in the day including Elvis Presley, Coco Chanel and Hugh Hefner.
They were also the ultimate bad guy car in the later half of the 20th Century.
The Kim family of North Korea have owned a couple including a landaulet which was last seen in a display in 2010.
Colombian drug dealer Pablo Escobar had one (which was sadly destroyed in an arson attack in Medellin in period. The skeleton of the car still exists at his abandoned Hacienda property. It would be a very big restoration though!).
Saddam Hussein’s is now in the Peterson Museum in Los Angeles.
The one that really interests me is Idi Amin’s Pullman. Idi Amin was the President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. The man committed some absolutely horrific atrocities over the course of his reign.
One of the cars he had was a W100 Pullman. The Pullman is an extended wheelbase limousine with a rear facing set of seats, so passengers in the back could face each other whilst meeting in the car.
The car is now in the possession of the Uganda National Museum and it is available to view. However, it has sat outside for many years and is really in need of restoration.
If I ever won the lottery that is one car I’d love to buy and restore. It would be a fantastic journey to get it restored and I could hopefully raise some awareness to what was a horrific period of history. I’d also use it to raise some money for the Uganda National Museum to go towards the wonderful work that they do.
There was a Pullman at the show. Suffice to say I immediately fell in love with it.
The W113 SL of this era is a very popular car with Mercedes enthusiasts.
The W460 G-Wagon sitting next to it was really cool. I don’t think I’ve actually seen another one of these in person. It’s a really cool truck!
The W116 era S-Class. I was surprised to learn that these weren’t designed by Bruno Sacco – it was infact designed by Freidrich Geiger. You can see he definitely took cues from it in his designs in the 1980s and 1990s though!
A W180 “Ponton” cabriolet from the 1950s.
It was also really nice to see some post 2000 cars represented. Around the turn on the millennium Mercedes (with Bruno Sacco) completely refreshed the design of their range.
Cars of this era are still very much attainable and good examples are probably a pretty good investment although prices are beginning to creep up.
This W209 CLK convertible was a 1/100 limited edition made in collaboration with Giorgio Armani. Super cool!
Thanks for reading. There’s only one article left to write in my London Concours coverage. If you would like to see more please subscribe to the blog via email (from the box at the bottom of the page).
Follow me on the following social media platforms:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/motorsportformentalhealth/
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-francis-b45025137/
TikTok: @richardfrancismsfmh
Twitter: @richardmsfmh
Instagram: @motorsport4mentalhealth
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-j8broFg4i2rWIBy6W82Q
By Richard Francis
