Welcome aboard!
sigmar, occasionally I welcome new members, so since I'm here, welcome to the forum. What took you so long? Interesting MB's you've got there. My first hands on exposure to MB's was in the early 80's in the "grey market" era. It was interesting to see the different liter sizes on various MB's and BMW's that were not available here in the US. I actually was employed by a company that operated out of a US east coast port that performed the DOT & EPA conversions. 75% of the cars were DOT only, the others were EPA/DOT conversion. Thats were my job came in. I was shuffling cars all around the eastern half of the US to different EPA test labs, doing the conversion work and getting the cars through the federal emissions test, or the "Dyno Wolf" as we called it. We did over 200 cars a month for a few years. Mostly MB's, but many BMW's, and Porsche, Ferarri, and Lamborghini. In fact we had 25 1984 Lamborghini Countach 5000S's come through, and about 8 Jalpas. I have some old photos I should scan. I saw many of W123 200 & I think 220's with stick shift, manual windows, manual sunroofs. And whatever you could imagine in the R107 body, from fire breathing Autobahn hotrods, to very subtle 280sl's. Just when you thought you've seen the badest, nicest 500SL, another would come through and blow it away. You had to see some of these cars, it was incredible. There were 280 W126's w/ carburetors. And of course the W116 6.9's that came through. Being a young man at the time I loved all the cars, but the one I really liked was a brand new 1984 280TE Wagon, sliver/ blk. A few years later MB gave the banks the squeeze (no more finance of grey market cars) the grey market came to an end, and MB got hip to the fact that the US wanted the 500's. So they got smart and came out with the 560 SL, and other 560 models. I went to work for a private MB/ Porsche repair & restoration shop for many years and then migrated into LE. I don't think I ever mentioned on the forum about my years in the grey market business, but I have to say it was fun and very educational and where my love for MB's began. Anyway enough writing, welcome to the forum..................Thorgod
sigmar, occasionally I welcome new members, so since I'm here, welcome to the forum. What took you so long? Interesting MB's you've got there. My first hands on exposure to MB's was in the early 80's in the "grey market" era. It was interesting to see the different liter sizes on various MB's and BMW's that were not available here in the US. I actually was employed by a company that operated out of a US east coast port that performed the DOT & EPA conversions. 75% of the cars were DOT only, the others were EPA/DOT conversion. Thats were my job came in. I was shuffling cars all around the eastern half of the US to different EPA test labs, doing the conversion work and getting the cars through the federal emissions test, or the "Dyno Wolf" as we called it. We did over 200 cars a month for a few years. Mostly MB's, but many BMW's, and Porsche, Ferarri, and Lamborghini. In fact we had 25 1984 Lamborghini Countach 5000S's come through, and about 8 Jalpas. I have some old photos I should scan. I saw many of W123 200 & I think 220's with stick shift, manual windows, manual sunroofs. And whatever you could imagine in the R107 body, from fire breathing Autobahn hotrods, to very subtle 280sl's. Just when you thought you've seen the badest, nicest 500SL, another would come through and blow it away. You had to see some of these cars, it was incredible. There were 280 W126's w/ carburetors. And of course the W116 6.9's that came through. Being a young man at the time I loved all the cars, but the one I really liked was a brand new 1984 280TE Wagon, sliver/ blk. A few years later MB gave the banks the squeeze (no more finance of grey market cars) the grey market came to an end, and MB got hip to the fact that the US wanted the 500's. So they got smart and came out with the 560 SL, and other 560 models. I went to work for a private MB/ Porsche repair & restoration shop for many years and then migrated into LE. I don't think I ever mentioned on the forum about my years in the grey market business, but I have to say it was fun and very educational and where my love for MB's began. Anyway enough writing, welcome to the forum..................Thorgod
