1974 | Mercedes-Benz 200

This W115 is a great project car with tons of potential.

It’s the 200 carburettor model with a four-speed manual gearbox, manual steering, but unusually, factory air conditioning and a Becker Mexico cassette player. Mercedes calls the colour Dark Red (542) and that’s contrasted with a tan MB Tex interior.

This car has an interesting history – we understand it was bought in Germany and first registered to the Saudi embassy so was on diplomatic plates until 1980. The gentleman who drove the car for the embassy was then gifted it, in 1983 it passed to his brother, then to his niece in 2017. So, it has effectively always been in the same family who have always garaged it, but it has not been on the road and driven for many years.

The odometer shows 20k KM, and we believe this car has only covered 120k KM in total due to the condition of the carpet and seat.

Starts, runs and drives around the yard, but is not road ready and would need recommissioning/work before it’s driven on the road. The engine sounds very healthy with good oil pressure and does not overheat. However, someone has replaced the original Stromberg carburettor with an SU at some point and that needs some setting up, or our preference would be to rebuild and revert to the original Stromberg, which comes with the car. Stainless steel rear silencer.

The paintwork is tired but has a nice patina if you ‘oily rag’ it, and there are a couple of rust spots, but for a W115 this thing is incredibly solid and original. Key rust areas like the bulkhead and rear sill/inner sill/arches are solid and original, no doubt thanks to being a London car and garaged. You really struggle to find 115s this good underneath today, even shiny ones. Underside photos available on request.

The interior is again pretty good. No dash cracks, no seat wear, good carpets, mainly needing a thorough clean. The instruments work and even the heater fan works – unheard of on these.

Overall, a really solid, original project car. A great place to start and you could have this one on the road with a couple of weekends work. Must be collected by transporter.