My Ultimate Dream Car Is Home, and I'm Parking It in My Living Room Because I Love It So Much

[00:25] automotive channel in all of YouTube. And I'm in Atlanta, Georgia, and my Uber has arrived. Hello, Mr. Uber driver. Welcome to Atlanta. How's it going? It is wonderful. Man, this is something. 60,000 miles

[00:39] >> gated Mercy. >> No error lights on at the moment, which is not always the case, but at the legitimately, it is a proper running car. It's a miracle. So, I'm here in Atlanta Yes.

[00:53] to buy a car. Another another Mercedes, surprise, surprise. Oh, a roadster to go with your going? Uh no, no, no. A little bit more modest, but it was the fastest sedan in the world in 1979. Uh-oh. And I haven't had one for over 15

[01:09] videos, actually. Take a look at this. Oh, Oh, yes. Oh, that is a yummy thing. Burnout >> [laughter] >> So, a 450SEL

[01:26] collection there. So, uh that's where I need to go. Oh, well, I I go there very very often. It's my car wizard of the south. Everybody says he sounds like you. Well, we I guess we would have a drawl

[01:40] different, but >> True. Yeah, but this. That's right. Oh, yeah.

[01:53] >> I did it, and the valves and everything. Wow. And it is running wonderfully. It is the highest mileage manual LP640 in the world of the 88 cars that exist.

[02:06] needing the clutch, it was needing the valve adjustment, and it had a big hole filling in that hole, putting in a radio. So, you listen to music now? Well, I haven't turned it on, but I you know, it's it's there, so it's much more

[02:19] complete. He just sits in the car in silence, but here we are. Whoa. Look at that lineup. Which one is it? Hopefully, the least hoopty one.

[02:31] >> Oh, I don't know about that. Well, that one's the most hoopty one. Unfortunately, though, Cameron's not going to be his usual chipper self. That is true. He may be a walking a little wonky. Giant puddle.

[02:44] wonky. Giant puddle. Giant puddle and suspension ruined. Small drips, but Oh. >> Not ruined. And it matches. The Yeah, here it is. And so much amazing technology in them. Oh, this this thing

[02:58] is nice. Yes. I love it. So, what brought this on? Just the nostalgia of missing your old one? Well, I drove one of the >> Okay. >> a 6.9, but this chassis is just so good.

[03:12] And I thought, well, this is something I need to experience again. >> 100,000 mile. Oh, it is nice. >> Mhm. Real I love the blue. Well, shall we find Cameron? Let's do. He's probably

[03:25] >> peas. >> Yes. Quite the lineup. Yeah, into DC >> Yes. Quite the lineup. Yeah, into DC Motorworks here. Hello. Oh, and a Hoovie. Hello. I sympathize so much with your peas there.

[03:40] So, somebody got snipped, the old vasectomy, which I did years ago. I door at the Bucarest National into my crotch. It was the worst thing ever, but I haven't done that yet. You're 24 hours in?

[03:55] 11:30. >> And the medication is still going, I see. Yeah, we got the uh we got the strong we got the good stuff going on here. Very nice. Anything to be here for you. Well, you are the 6.9 guru. I know

[04:09] you have several cars yourself, some of them are out there, but uh mine, and it's uh looks pretty good on first sight. That's You got a good one. 6.9 ownerships can be a little rough. Can you can you walk?

[04:23] Are you able to to go out there and show us? Kick some I'll hold your peas. Hold that. Hold that. Anything for the camera.

[04:37] absolutely. They they didn't they weren't direct contact, were they? >> Oh, okay. Now, the cool 6.9 is not here, it's at >> It is. It's just The proper one is on display. So, explain your love for 6.9s.

[04:54] So, my actual car came in, it was the first experience I had with a 116 when I still was a employee and not a shop owner. And uh I I gave it one hit of the pedal, and I was like, I'm sold. You got me. And uh yeah, I bought it from that

[05:09] guy a couple years ago, and uh once I found out from my bad influence here they have some Cannonball prowess, I said, I have to I have to get a 6.9. And recently sold that was the runner-up. Was the uh behind the Jag XJS, I think,

[05:24] >> And it's astral silver like >> Yeah, it is. Yeah, so mine's different because it's got Euro bumpers on it, but it's an American car. So, there's like the US and the Euro cars, right? >> 36.

[05:37] >> 30? Wow. But you did a bunch of work to her, huh? Yes, so it got the full Euro >> Nice. >> Yes, yes, watch yes, yes, door's important. Went through the C 21 base

[05:52] suspension system. Yeah, all the shocks got rebuilt, all the accumulators. We got a long journey home. Oh, yeah.

[06:07] Well, I didn't get very far. There's a little ghost inside of the There's a little ghost inside of the speedometer.

[06:22] speedo cable. I think it's breaking. I think it's breaking. It's fine. Can't do 14 hours home with that. Obviously, I have a lot of German luxury

[06:36] sedans lying around, and something's got to give, so I decided to give away this to give, so I decided to give away this 2001 BMW 740i Sport to one of you, and I'm sure I'll be kicking myself. It only has a little over 70,000 miles on it,

[06:48] and it's in really nice condition, plus an incredible spec. Finished in Imola Red with black sport leather interior, legendary M parallel wheels, and the last year of the E38, in my opinion, the most beautiful generation of 7 Series of

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[07:54] Bavarian Dream Team mug or keychain. Okay, cluster's out, and we're going to with Mercedes, this is an oil line right here. It is literally an oil gauge that is totally mechanical. So, there is oil

[08:06] squirting through this into the gauge to give you your literal oil pressure. And you get oil everywhere at your feet and all that stuff, but here's the speedo cable. It's probably not that. It's probably the cluster, but

[08:20] talking about the climate control system, it's not working for whatever reason now. So, all this is vacuum controlled, including kicking on the blower, except for defrost. So, none of these buttons

[08:33] are working except defrost. So, we're going to see if it's something stupid and obvious, but I may not have climate control for the drive home. No suspension warning lights Uh the bulb's just out of that.

[08:45] >> Of course. But really really nice on the inside. Yeah, this one is proper nice. Yeah. All right. Well, It's not Riptide blue, but matches my grandma's SL, and the silver matches

[09:00] the gullwing, so it's it's perfect. It's the perfect bridge in between. Love it. but you know, the condition and all. No worries, but I can point. There is the

[09:14] AC II system right there. >> Yeah, the Chrysler built system. >> Yeah, I hear you were very shrewd. You took a page out of his book on on your deal on this one. >> Go. Well, the high bidder on this thing

[09:28] or something like that, and just decided not to pay. Oh. So, I got to swoop in and buy it. I've had that happen before. It's no fun. Right? But I think it what's the top speed of it? So, a US car will do

[09:43] allegedly 140 uh with like a long stretch and downhill. 135, 138 is is pretty attainable. But if he wants to manual swap it and give it the DC treatment,

[09:57] you can hold it at 145 allegedly. For a extended periods. >> all that for 5 miles an hour? >> But we still got a manual 6.9 in Atlanta before a manual SL55 in Orlando.

[10:11] Freddy here. We we got a few more manual swaps outside. We got a supercharged C63 that's getting done. We have another C63 and a CLK430 Designo.

[10:23] 6.9 over there? >> They uh That looks kind of like mine. It is black. But uh mine of course has the full Euro treatment. And uh mine has the Brazil brown interior, whereas that's

[10:36] the Palomino. So mine has the milk chocolate brown. Yeah, the 6.9 and the M100 cars. >> Yeah, so all I need is a 600 Grosser and >> That's a whole new level of automotive masochism that I probably will never

[10:49] hydraulic and everything else, yeah. As much as I want one, I won't even think I >> That one is enough. Like I love the 6.9. That is a headache. Yeah, as as cruise controls working on this one, right?

[11:03] I haven't tested that. The cruise is your foot all the way to the floor. That's it. That's true. A couple Cannonballers here. So I suppose well, I have the perfect period Cannonball car to accomplish all that. All sorted out

[11:16] thanks to Cameron at DC Motorworks. So thank you so much for uh storing the car for me, for sorting it out. But now I have a long journey ahead of me. It don't have to be long. But you're right. What what's the record

[11:28] right now? Oh, 25:39 all the way across, but he has the uh competitive event record. That's what he set in his 6.3. Ah, okay. >> 30:56. It's about 14 hours back to Kansas.

[11:41] According to GPS. Mm. You can do better. Yeah, you got Mm. You can do better. Yeah, you got this.

[11:57] Atlanta. Lubing up the cluster and the cable made that all quiet, so that's nice. And then I have climate control thanks to an unclogged vacuum line. A thanks to an unclogged vacuum line. A brand new T line was actually clogged

[12:11] from the factory and so there was no vacuum supply going to the whole thing that controls it under the hood. So that's all working and I'm on the road here. Still so much power.

[12:25] And then handling so well. I'm keeping so flat in the turns here. Flat out to jeez. As I get on the highway this shouldn't be possible in a car that's almost 50 years old.

[12:40] And as you can see, we're already at highway speeds. There's cars behind me. They're not passing me because I was able to do that in the 6.9 and now we're going fast okay. We'll lift.

[12:57] This car is insane. It is it is totally insane that something from the 1970s can perform like that. And it feels so good. It feels like you are literally riding on a cloud or in this case, you're riding on mineral oil

[13:14] like you're in a luxury yacht just, you know, going down crystal clear smooth water instead of a highway and it keeps the car flat in the turns. So it really is the best of both worlds. It was genius for Mercedes to license this from

[13:29] cars, of course, but they didn't have this level of performance. The 6.9 just so much torque, an unbelievable amount and it just keeps pulling and pulling and it just keeps pulling and pulling and pulling.

[13:46] This hands down was the best car in the world in 1979 and the fact that you can buy these relatively affordably considering what they are and how few there are in the United States. This one was in the mid-20s for a nice driver.

[13:58] You can buy some projects in the low teens and the nice six examples still don't bring more than like $40,000. It's nuts. It is crazy that you can get this top dog level car with the largest engine Mercedes has ever put in a

[14:12] passenger car for less than a used Toyota Camry. I hadn't driven a 6.9 in 15 years and the one that I bought, it was 4,500 bucks in Earl Scheib's junkyard and needed a lot of work. I I couldn't afford to fix it, so I sold it

[14:25] to somebody as a restoration project and unfortunately, I think the car's still apart to this day. Thankfully, the previous owner spent about 20 grand on very, very good shape, at least a good starting point. But these cars can be

[14:39] pretty needy, but you can see why when you look really closely. So I'll pull you look really closely. So I'll pull over and give you a tour.

[15:03] gorgeous looking here in golden hour. So the chassis designation from the engineers is the 116 unveiled in the early 1970s and it really brought Mercedes into a whole new era of design where it still looks classic, but a lot

[15:18] of modern updates. Gone are the round headlights in favor of this modern look here in the front, but still that big proud hood star, the mesh grill and a very low hood on these things for aerodynamics, but a tall roof sort of

[15:33] resembling the SLs, the pagoda roofs, if you will, to give you a very roomy cabin inside. Now the 6.9 didn't come out until 1975 and they weren't even sure if they were going to offer it in the US because of the fuel crisis. They didn't

[15:46] think Americans would want a giant engine Mercedes, but it turns out there was still a ton of demand despite the terrible MPG. So they started offering them simply as the 6.9 in the US. No 450SEL badge on the back. This car only

[16:01] the 6.9. The badge saying you got the top dog Mercedes and you paid a lot of top dog Mercedes and you paid a lot of money. Almost $40,000 in the 1970s, which is the equivalent of $200,000 today for a Mercedes. So just as

[16:14] expensive as a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley, but you got a much better car as far as world. You got that incredible ride with the suspension and you got astounding astounding build quality, but not many luxury gimmicks. That's the thing about

[16:29] this car. Inside you don't have power seats. They're all manual. No power windows either. You had to reach on either side to adjust your control, that was a thing here in the US, but not in Europe. You did get some

[16:43] gorgeous burl wood all the way through the car in the trim, power windows, three-speed automatic transmission, which accelerating, it gets to about like 55 or 60 before it shifts out of first gear. And the tall rear end is

[16:55] it's only a three-speed automatic transmission that you can control here. Basically first, second, third and it is fairly responsive for what it is, a car from the 1970s. This stereo though, it has to go. It's a crappy pop-up stereo.

[17:10] I can't even get the Bluetooth to work and it just looks so wrong with the car, especially with all these classic looking buttons here and the gauges. Beautiful. 103,000 miles on this car and you can see here, this is that hydraulic

[17:23] suspension, which is adjustable with this knob right here. So I can raise it ground clearance or tuck it in low to the ground for highway speeds. Just like same suspension, you could adjust it, but not in the US. They disabled that

[17:37] to be one consistent height the entire time and all US cars got these massive park bench bumpers where you could literally sit on them like a park bench and sealed beam headlights. So they went back to round headlights. Somebody

[17:51] decided to make this thing the full Euro spec treatment and it is a massive improvement to the looks of the car. Michelin also started making this period correct tread for older cars. I have the same thing on my 300SL gullwings. So

[18:03] that really makes it look the part as well. And overall, it is stunning to blemishes here and there. A few paint bubbles. I see one here. There's another one in the sunroof corner right there that needs to be touched up. But Cameron

[18:16] along with a few other shops to the tune of over $20,000 in the last couple of to drive. Let's take another look at this power plant, the largest engine ever offered in the Mercedes passenger car, 6.9 L V8. Well, actually it's 6.8,

[18:31] want things to be a little bigger and but uh that is what they went with for the badge. And because this car is so low with the hood and the engine so big,

[18:43] they had to do a dry sump system, which has almost 12 quarts of oil and that is the tank right here. It means you can go over 10,000 miles on an oil change, but back then three months 3,000 miles was the standard. This is the big

[18:57] suspension tank right here and this is what adjusts the height. And this is the offending T bracket right here that was clogged up from the factory and not giving me vacuum supply to control the climate controls. It took a minute to

[19:09] easy fix. Now back to these engines. When they were building them, they were hand-built in the factory sort of like AMG is today or the I guess the nicer AMG engines. And then they were bench tested for over 4 hours including almost

[19:23] an hour at wide open throttle before they were put into the car. Basically broken in, ready to go 140 miles per hour on the Autobahn the moment you drove it off the showroom floor. It is a fairly invincible power plant and where

[19:36] the car really gets let down is people not understanding how to fix the rough and leaks all the time and falls to the ground. These cars definitely hate to sit, but this one hasn't been sitting. It's gone several hundred miles

[19:50] already and it's going to get me back to Kansas. I got to say, I am so happy with this thing. I can't believe it's taken me 15 years to buy another one because this really is one of the greatest Mercedes, if not one of the greatest

[20:03] cars of all time. >> [music]

[22:36] when the Gullwing shows up here in Kansas, and it's here. my living room is obviously making a little more surreal than normal, but I can't believe that I own this car, and it is back in Kansas after 4 months at

[22:51] the Classic Center. So, when I bought this 55 300SL Gullwing, it had been sitting for a very long time, 10 years not running, not really driven, and the re-commissioning at the Classic Center was extensive. Going through the fuel,

[23:03] the brakes, so many different systems you wouldn't think of on an old car, but supercar, it is actually pretty complicated. And it is a very, very spicy bill that I will eventually have to pay, but I don't care about any of

[23:16] that right now because this car is here. Now, there was one false start. I went to Doug DeMuro, basically all the way down the Southern California coast, and it drove fine, but it did feel a little weird in the fuel delivery. So, I

[23:29] then, but back to the Classic Center, and Nate discovered that it had a different injection pump on it from this car. It had one from a roadster or a race car that was tuned for the race cam. And rather than go back and remap

[23:43] stuff, it made more sense to just put a race cam in it. Didn't cost that much more, and then gained 30 or 40 horsepower. 40 horses on a 200 horsepower car is a lot, a lot, a lot. So, apparently it completely transformed

[23:59] really do right now in here because Santa kind of brought it down the chimney. So, for now, I'm just going to marvel at this amazing thing. This is so April will let me keep it here forever, but I do want to get out and drive it.

[24:12] Although, there are still some issues. I put a piece of cardboard underneath transmission fluid, and for that to get fixed, the transmission has to come out, car. You have to take out the interior and the floor to get the transmission

[24:25] out. So, that's definitely a thing. Still a few minor oil leaks, and then the 6.9, well, it made it here, but it sprang a pretty good leak on it as well. soon, but for now, I'm just going to marvel at this incredible machine. Thank

[24:40] you so much for watching and really making this possible. making this possible. Still can't believe it.