1972 Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3 - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] welcome to another episode of Jay Leno's Garage today we're going to talk about mine 1972 mercedes-benz 6.3 well I want to prove to you that we read the comment section a while back we did a piece about all the projects we had going on here at the garage and I mentioned that I was a bit of a dilemma I bought this car five six seven well partly seven years ago now and it had three hundred thousand miles on it it ran fine and I had managed obtain the drivetrain from an SLS Mercedes and the gearbox and hold-down I was going to transplant that into this car but in the interim I realize this car has a value of its own it's his unique car it's a collector car and I asked you guys should I restore it or put the modern drivetrain inside a resto mod it but still keeping a Mercedes overwhelmingly you said no no you got to keep it stock so that's what I've done and I'm glad I did that when I was a kid I worked at a place called foreign motors in Boston on Commonwealth Avenue and we had all kinds of foreign cars we had Citroen we had rolls-royce we had Bentley but primarily mercedes-benz and up until about 1968 mercedes-benz well I've always had the reputation that mercedes-benz have but the biggest engine was a six-cylinder and they were not known to be particularly powerful cars nice driving cars incredible build quality they just didn't have that American v8 oomph well around the same time actually a few years earlier 1963 mercedes-benz developed this car we talked about this car on the website a while back this is the Mercedes 600 this was the only car ever built by mercedes-benz to be a money no object car we wanted to build the best car we could whatever it costs that's what it cost and they developed this 6.3 liter overhead cam v8 fuel injection with 302 horsepower which was incredible the time and those are German horses with a four-speed automatic transmission but it weighed about three tons but it was still just about the fastest thing in mercedes-benz lineup this car was faster than the SL was fasten a they had and with the air suspension and the design work into it handled pretty well well then there was a guy named Eric Watson Berger I hope I'm saying that correctly an American version of a German name wax Lee they called him he was one of those Mercedes engineers guys he was a real sports car guy and he thought why not take this engine and put it in something smaller you know using the John DeLorean theater taking the big engine from the Pontiac Grand Prix and putting it into the smaller car well that's what he did but he did it in secret because nobody at mercedes-benz thought it would sell they didn't think it would be popular so using a sort of well his own time and his own sort of project budget he had it's kind of squirreled some money away to do this project he took the big engine room here and put it into this smaller mercedes-benz and the nice thing about this car is especially in the 60s although it was bigger than a Mustang or Camaro it was still smaller than a full-size galaxy or Chrysler Imperial or a Cadillac so this was a real supercar a German supercar as I said you now had 300 horsepower and the four-speed gearbox and the disc brakes and everything but in a car weighing about 3,800 pounds versus 6,000 pounds and that made this pretty much a rocketship at least compared to the 60s this car was faster than the 911 faster than the BMW's faster than the Easter or Voltas or any of those cars even faster I believe that a few Ferraris zero to 60 in 6.5 seconds which is just about what the Hemi Belvedere Chrysler did I've got a 66 Coronet over there with a Hemi engine and that was about six point five so if aniconism was that actually stopped and went around corners you had the air suspension from this you had the for the time luxurious leather interior real wood - 4-speed gearbox that shifts like bang bang bang I mean it's pretty good Eric westenberg took this car and then he gave it to Rudolf cooling hot I hope I'm saying is right he's the guy that developed the famous SLR and he was the real high-performance mercedes-benz guy and he went Eric went roarin past his office and he came up with justice you know and he he Eric said here take it for a ride so he took of her ride that just was so impressed by the power he actually pulled over to stop light to open the hood to see what was in it he couldn't believe how much power it was that's when they gave the go-ahead to build these they thought maybe they'd sell 50 well the response was overwhelming especially from America this car sold for about fourteen thousand four hundred dollars about sixteen thousand by 1972 which was an incredible amount of money that was probably equal to or a little bit more than a lot of Ferraris in the whole four-year run of this car they built six thousand five hundred and twenty six they've become a cult car and when I was a kid and when I worked at mercedes-benz I thought this was the greatest car in the world still do it's still my members favorite mercedes-benz to drive I love this body style I love the stacked headlights I like the fact that it's what the British call a cue ship it's the most unassuming car you can imagine it just looks like a mercedes-benz any mercedes-benz except that's six-point-three emblem in Germany had the same appeal to young men is the famous Hemi badge on the side of a Plymouth or a Coronet as I said before four-wheel disc brakes leather interior central locking you press this you see they all four lock and locks a trunk which is not a big deal now because even Corollas have that but back in the 60s and 70s that was a real luxury item they came standard with air conditioning at least in America tachometer and these engines were under stressed you you know Mercedes bent went racing with these and they were revving them to eight grand and getting all kinds of horsepower out of them but for the American market the 300 horsepower they're pretty bulletproof this car now has one 327 thousand miles on it and it's still going the air suspension still works fine everything works fine until it breaks and then oh my god it's like crazy money yeah if you've got to get one of these by the best one you can because they are expensive to repair but that's okay that's okay let's take a look under the hood and I'll show you what I'm talking about now bear in mind this car has not been restored we're going to restore it I just bought it as a driver thinking the engine was going to break and we're out and I put a new motor in it well I think it must have heard me because this thing just keeps running and running and running as you can see single overhead cam on each bank you know there's a great road test by Don garlics the famous drag racer the Swamper add one of our heroes has all kinds of interesting features I remember there was a where's the switch Dom was concerned about he couldn't figure out what it did and then he realized that oh every time the hood went up the fan shut off so the mechanic didn't cut his fingers I hurt himself when he was working on the car it's a big engine and boy it's crammed in there it's not a lightweight engine it weighs about 700 pounds but he was just amazed that this car could run 100 to 125 miles an hour all day long in 2002 I was fortunate enough to drive the Firebird pace car at Daytona and they brought out all the old Firebirds to take around the track and I took out the oh you know the one with a big chicken on the hood the 455 we couldn't get it over 112 and on the straightened Daytona because it just didn't have the power this thing runs 140 miles an hour the rear-end ratio is 2.85 so to turn a quarter mile in the 14s that was pretty impressive it still pulls like no other mercedes-benz that I've ever driven see I don't know whether this is me reflecting back on my youth and just being blown away by this car at a time when I never could have afforded it so I suppose there's a lot of nostalgia in there for me as well you know I only paid $5,000 for this car because the people I got it from thought it was just gonna wear out and break anytime soon that was seven years ago I've done nothing to it it leaks a little transmission fluid the seals it sat in for a long time the seals dried out I just put some trans X in there to see if the seals will swell up a little bit maybe it will but it doesn't overheat the air conditioner works it's just an unbelievable automobile it you know I I get so much pleasure from driving it a lot it's the perfect size to me modern cars seem real they seem big and wide and long roars this thing seems really compact the doors are really thin I love the thin steering wheel come on let's take it for a ride you know I remember the car magazines from the sixties and seventies like you were yesterday rodent tracks said this was merely the best sedan in the world not one of the best in the world they emphasize that the best in the world because there was no car that could do what this car could do there were cars that were faster and there were cars that handled better but the warrant cars that when you put all the combination together was better than this know back when I worked for Mercedes Benz they didn't bring the car to the dealership on transporter we had to fly down to a Port Elizabeth New Jersey and picked them up if they came off the boat but back to Massachusetts and I remember being on i-95 of these things run 295 come in 20 miles an hour trying to get back to Boston under two hours yeah it's pretty exciting that was my favorite part of the job driving these cars back to Port Elizabeth New Jersey he in 22 years old to drive it the fastest sedan in the world a lot of fun spent the night jail one night in Roanoke Virginia I got flagged at 128 at about one o'clock in the morning and I got taken to the judges house and just like in a movie the judge came out in his pajamas and sat down in front of a desk and hit a gavel and find me and I heated by the week in jail or pay the fine I had cash in my sock I'd paid the fine and I kept off the modern equivalent of this car might be something like the charger hellcat afford Oh at 707 horsepower that looks like a regular car until you put your foot in it it's fine just to walk away from lesser cost I'd love to hear from people in the comment section that they've ever driven at six point three C I don't know how much of my love for this car is nostalgia because it brought back a period of my life when I was dead broke and I got to drive some of the fastest cars in the world or whether it really is what I feel it is I'm not sure what the ratio was today but when this car was built and mercedes-benz on the assembly line one out of every 11 employees was an inspector to make sure the car was built correctly although this was one of the best handling car center the best Heron delink European sedan in the 60s it's still a 50 year old car and suspensions come a long way you know when I go up the canyons and that rear wheel lifts I dare that tire just breaks loose and spins it have to be a little bit careful the air suspension is nice but of course there's no match for what you know a modern mercedes-benz could do you don't want to drive this car fast you just want to drive it that being said driving at 10 to 20 miles above the speed limit it's still supremely comfortable and I love that just looks like an old Mercedes but this leather I mean this leather is the original leather to the car 325 thousand miles and it still looks good I don't see it goes pretty good but this is not this car's natural environment this car likes to be on the Autobahn or the closest we have here in LA the 210 freeway come on we'll take it up there this is where this car lives on the open road like this no more gets blown off by GTOs and 4-4-2 what you put in it you're out of there I just like the mechanical miss of this car no computers without steering is hydraulic air suspension this four-speed gearbox a lot of people didn't like it because the ship that shifted so abruptly well I kind of like that like that kick in the pants feel you get from it you know there's a wonderful Club for these cars there's a 6.3 Club they have classifieds you can buy cars from Club members because that's somebody that's taking care of the vehicle and cherished it you might pay a little bit more but you'll know you're getting a driver's car because people who have these like to drive you know although road and track called this the best sedan in the world it still was not without its problems one was this air-conditioning unit nowhere near up to the standard of American units from General Motors or Ford it tends to sweat a little bit and it's really noisy listen give me how I know if you can picking that up but you know noisy it is it just but that's what you had that was German air conditioning and prior to this most was the unit that would hang down here so this was one of the first ones German was at least to have all the air conditioning integrated into the dashboard it works it's just really noisy the car also has no outside adjustment for the rear view mirror this is a car you tend to run with the air conditioner on the windows up and most American cars you can go like this to adjust the mirror there's only I had to put the window down and put your hand outside booooo-whoo and to put my hand outside it's really not that big a problem of course nowadays you have a big airbag here but back in the day this was a safety feature from mercedes-benz besides the collapsing steering column you had this was thought of would take some of the well I guess some of the impact and spread it out over rather puncture your chest this would absorb it that was the idea behind it that's real wood on the dashboard that's a real piece of wood at the glovebox I love that part of it here's your heater and defroster up here flat punk radio chorus they were the best back in the day you got just phenomena right here goes 260 miles an hour tachometer is dead center you have your fuel gauge your oil pressure your oil and water your water temperature rather clock over here and assorted buttons for the lighting and whatnot another complaint rodent track had was the car did not have an electric power seat I like a manual power seat to me that seems like a specious argument because when I get in a car I set the seat to where I want it it stays that way for the rest of my life I don't let a lot of people drive my car so having electronic adjustments and having 30 or 40 pounds worth of motor to move my buttocks two feet one way or the other seems like a ridiculous wasted energy and wasted some wasted space I love the leather of these old Mercedes look how thick it is I mean this is 50 years old this is like armchair den you know and I'm Jade having your den this is the kind of heavy leather I was always disappointed with that later leather they went to another point Mercedes had was there was no vanity mirror but you could put your own is this was good had a great sunroof take a look at that good day Mr Bond coming up route 95 110 miles an hour with the sunroof open nothing more exciting than that and this is a car that has just planned it you know you get on the road and boom it's just dead straight no wallowing no going up and down just fantastic and you can see the horses in front of us but like a bad commercial when I Mercedes four-wheel disc brakes we stopped link left I was never a big fan of this weenie little shifter that always seemed kind of C might do something a bit more manly you want to grip with your hand but that's okay in some ways even to a more primitive especially when it came to heating and air conditioning an American car ski you see that big blower down there some of it is kind of primitive you know whereas an American car would have the heating and everything under the dashboard see how the big blower motor just bolted to the side of the the fender there the electric window switches look kind of like something out of the JC Whitney catalog from the 60s that all being said I don't know many cars that could take this kind of abuse and mileage and still have everything work that's what I love about this car everything still works on it you know I always like these especially be smoked you better you're a fan just flick the ashes out start a forest fire now maybe it's me but that three-pointed star in the hood seems so much more prominent to me and he's older Mercedes and it does in the newer ones you know that's when it I don't know it just boy it's right there it's right in your face just makes it look like a real quality piece in the air suspension much like the central end we did a while back you can raise or lower this you know for inclement weather or snow you can bring the suspension up to the highest level and then when you get down on the freeway it kind of hunker down the success of the six point three and the demand was so great it made mercedes-benz realize hey we need to have some v8 so quickly they came out with the three point five and the four point five to two other great great motors but this one this is the one that's started at all and my friend called middle ha view I talked about him in the video we did on the 600 he is an expert in these cars he can get five six seven hundred horsepower out of them yeah so it's maybe I'll have him do one of my motors better reasons I get a little driveline vibration you know I was gonna pull my driveshaft out and get it balanced but then I read a couple of road tests and that seems to be a common problem with these cars so if the factory couldn't fix it I'm not gonna mess with you know as I said before you've got to see these automobiles in the time period to which they live you know it's like fighters like Muhammad Ali or whatever though this guy could have beat that guy you can't live in the time you live in and when this was built it was the fastest four-door sedan in the world people would take them to drag strips and would only get beaten by it maybe big block Chevys or Hemi cars that was sort of the amazing thing and people did thousands and thousands of trouble-free miles in these cars to me this is the car that really made mercedes-benz reputation America okay besides the Goldwing from the 50s but this to me was a pretty good successor to the Gullwing remember this car came really just maybe twelve or fourteen years after the Gullwing but it's a fun story how the whole car came to be as I said Google Mercedes spent 6.3 read the article on Don Garlits and his car and car and drivers written by one of my favorites Brock Yates and go to the mercedes-benz Club website they'll give you all the information you need you know driving this thing brings back so many memories to me I remember how I was said delivering one of these and I stopped the McDonald to get something to eat you know and I'm putting the ketchup on my hamburger like this as I'm creeping forward in traffic and I bump the lady in front of me and burger goes like this it sticks to my face and I'm so worried I damaged car I run out to look at the damage woman gets out looks at my face aah screaming think I've been horribly disfigured because I had this bloody patty stuck in my face and I said no I'm not her that's just the hamburger she goes a hamburger where's the hamburger stuck in your face yeah it took some X when he explained you yeah I know it's stupid anyway listen I hope you enjoyed this trip as much as I did if you having a chance to drive one of these cars boy just take it they're just really wonderful wonderful automobiles and it's really a passion thing for me I hope it is for you too we'll see you guys next week oh and keep commenting in the comment sections we enjoy reading them and and we listen to you bye bye see you next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,419,903

Rating: 4.9416919 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay lenos garage, nbc jay lenos garage, jay leno, jay leno 1972 mercedes benz 300 sel 6.3, jay lenos garage mercedes, jay leno mercedes, jay leno restoration, jay lenos garage restoration

Id: Ct-KlbvGXgo

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 25 2015