Mercedes w123 parts specialist full#
That figure is weighted massively in favour of the saloons (126,004 cars) but today they are probably the least often seen, if only because the coupés and estates have tended to be cherished.įinished in a rare shade of Forest Green, Peter Sutton’s 280E has a full leather interior and electric windows. Initially rated at 175bhp, power went up to 182bhp in 1978 thanks to a higher compression ratio there was no advertised difference in output between the D- and K-Jetronic cars.Īll versions – saloon, coupé and estate – are rarer than you might imagine in 280 form: of 2.6 million W123s built from 1975 to 1986, fewer than 180,000 had the injected twin-cam engine. While Continental buyers could choose from various lower-compression carburetted M110 variants, for the power- and status-hungry British market these top-of-the-range W123s only came with injection, initially Bosch D-Jetronic – with its vacuum sensor and 25-transistor ECU – and later K-Jetronic, a continuous high-pressure system with fuel running at 5bar and delivery controlled by an air-flow meter It also proved enormously versatile, ending its days in the G-Wagen in 1989, having provided service in the SL and SLC sports cars, and two generations of the S-Class saloon. Where most Mercedes engines tended to look industrial and unromantic, the M110 presented handsomely under the 123’s two-position bonnet, with proud dual cam covers on the aluminium cylinder head. Like everything else about the W123, the M110 straight-six was the product of careful, methodical development rather than revolution: its extensively webbed cast-iron block, with 12 counterbalance weights on a beefy seven-bearing crankshaft, was directly related to the M130 single-cam engine used in the W108 S-Class and Pagoda since 1967, and had a history that could be traced back to the early ’50s. To make the point, factory brochures showed a world of healthy, square-jawed ’70s Germans in beige flares making ‘responsible’ use of this power through Teutonic pine forests and along deserted, sun-drenched autobahns, enjoying the velour trim and the quad head restraints in a Mercedes that still had an air of quality and superiority, but was somehow less menacing than the cars that had come before it. The 280-engined 123s were designed for 100mph (or more) cruising on unrestricted motorways. Tellingly, of these mid-’70s car makers, only Mercedes was confident enough to fit an odometer that ran to 999,999 miles. In fact, the 280E was neither the fastest nor the most refined of its multi-cylinder rivals, a list that included the Peugeot 604, BMW 528 and Leyland’s ‘saviour’ car, the 122mph Rover 3500, which at £4750 was hard to ignore. You could buy a Jaguar XJ12 for the same money. Hefty West German tax on engines of over 2.8 litres kept Stuttgart’s designers focused on extracting as much urge as possible from a relatively small unit, while keeping half an eye on future emissions regulations for the North American market.įuel economy – never much better than 20mpg – wasn’t a huge consideration in an £8000 car built for people who did not have to worry about the price of fuel.Įven accounting for the weakness of Sterling at the time, £8k was an extraordinarily stiff price for a 2.8-litre saloon that didn’t even have a rev counter or a radio as standard.