(2021) MERCEDES-BENZ S500 VS MERCEDES-BENZ 450 SEL(1980)

摘要

So you should. The 450 SEL 6.9 made a brief but memorable appearance in Ronin, mandatory viewing for any TG reader. It was the car to which French director Claude Lelouche strapped a 35mm camera and drove at high speed through Paris early one Sunday to create C'etait un rendez-vous. James Hunt had one. It is without doubt one of the coolest Mercedes ever built. And what better excuse to have a go than the launch of a new S-Class?The W116 wasn't Merc's first flagship saloon, but it was the first to officially adopt the S-Class name (short for Sonderklasse, or 'special class'). It launched in 1972, right before the 73 oil crisis. Undeterred, the 6.9 arrived a couple of years later. Its 6,834cc V8 (yes, Mercedes has a long history of creative rounding) was supposedly the largest engine yet fitted to a European production car since WW2. At 70,000 Deutschmarks it was over twice the price of an entry-level W116 and not far off a contemporary Rolls-Royce.Because the 6.9 was the ultimate Mercedes of its era. It was hugely fast, with a claimed 0-62mph time of 7.4secs and a top speed of 140mph, ridiculously comfortable thanks to hydropneumatic suspension that makes it smoother (in a straight line) than most modern cars, and notoriously over-engineered. Admittedly this particular 6.9 is well looked after, but it's the most solid, modern-feeling classic I've driven. Wouldn't hesitate to drive it to Edinburgh and back in a day, assuming someone else was buying the fuel....