Back in December 1985, my boss just had taken delivery of a new 1984 500SEC AMG euro spec, what a beautiful car it was, in Lapis Blue with BBS wheels.
This was in San Francisco, and he wanted the car with him in Aspen that Christmas, but needed the car driven by someone, and I offered to do it. I knew nothing about Mercedes, but loved the looks of the car and offered to do it.
One thing I thought was strange, before leaving he had a brand new set of mud and snow tires fitted to a set of blue AMG penta wheels, which I thought was strange, but he said the car might need them in winter driving.
A couple of days later, the sun had gone down and I was in the car on highway 80 in Wyoming, and the highway began to white out, in drifting and blowing snow, you could hardly see anything. All of a sudden, the road felt rather patchy and bumpy, so I slowed down to 60 mph, all of a sudden the rear end of the car snapped left, so I corrected, and then the rear end snapped right,, and I corrected to the right, but the car was one lane over, but straigtened out, I was terrified, WTF was THAT!!!!????
I made it, terrified, that night to a motel, in Cheyenne, and when I checked out I told the desk clerk what happened. He just laughed, and said, haven't you heard of black ice, you hit a patch, this time of year we lose cars off it every day around here.
As a matter of fact, NO, I was from the SF bay area, was 25 years old before I remember seeing snow for the first time in my life, what would I know about black ice.
But the Mercedes, with snow tires on it, SAVED MY LIFE, I have no doubt.
I almost put that new 500SEC AMG euro on its head, skiis on the rack and all.
What a fantastic car. Damn these things get the job done.
I vowed to someday own a fine Mercedes coupe like this myself. Ten years later I was finally driving my own 560 SEC.
And another 10 years later, after that, I still own and drive the 560SEC.
Jim B.