Vehicle Description
This is a truly stunningly gorgeous example of a European
specification Mercedes 450SEL 6.9 sedan. Finished in "Anthracite"
metallic (code: 172) with black leather seats, the car presents in
such a stunning condition that it would certainly rank in the top
20% examples world-wide. The 450SEL 6.9 sedan is the almighty,
high-performance version of the W116 saloon, first introduced to
the world at the 1974 Geneva Motor Show. Produced in limited
numbers from 1975 through to 1980 with only 1,816 such cars ever
exported to North America. It sported the M100 6.9 litre V8 engine
boasting a whopping 286bhp, which made it the quickest accelerating
and fastest 4-door production sedan in the world at the time. The
6.9 had the first full four-wheel hydropneumatic suspension system
from Mercedes-Benz and was the world's first passenger car to be
fitted with a modern form of ABS, an electronic four-wheel
multi-channel anti-lock braking system from Bosch in 1978. The cars
has a very significant place in European luxury motor-car history.
This example is a European delivery so it has higher compression
engine (8.8:1) which gave her 15% more horsepower than the American
version and even the Australian version which had greater power
than the US cars. Visually, the most welcomed aspect to these Euro
spec cars is the streamlined bumpers and rectangular headlights
which are indeed a great welcome over the very obtrusive (and ugly)
North American type bumpers and silly (and even more ugly) round
headlights. This 6.9 was personally imported by a "Judith Hippler"
on August 13th, 1985 1980s and full documentation for the import
comes with the car along with history files and service books (a
whole box to include workshop service manual). The car has resided
in Atlanta, Georgia ever since and only recently coming to Illinois
this year. The car is without any rust anywhere, including the
underside which is entirely scale free. The car has had 2 US owners
who added most of the mileage on highway running. Anyone who might
be concerned with the documented 160,000 miles (260,000 klms) won't
appreciate the condition of this car and if fixated on the miles,
should gracefully move on. For starters, if someone was to tell you
this 6.9 had only 50,000 miles, I think you would believe it - it
is THAT good! Recently serviced and all in working order.
Mechanically the car is in top shape with no known issues. Just a
quick look under the hood is testament to how well this Mercedes
has been maintained. All windows work, sunroof, vacuum door-locks,
AC is ice cold.... she's ready to go. Body and paint is excellent.
The car is accident free and the paint appears to be mostly
original. It is very shiny and consistent with only minor chips
here and there but nothing glaringly so. There is no crazing or
cracks in the paint. There is one blemish on the left front of the
bonnet which is captured in one of the photographs. Under the
engine bay, the factory paint is excellent and the radiator support
panel is all original (on repaired cars the engine bay decals are
either missing or you can see paint mask-off around them - there is
none of this). The bright-work is without scratching of the typical
"hazing" that is often seen on Mercedes aluminium mouldings. The
rear tail-lights are perfect with the white reverse sections not
faded to yellow. The car finishes are truly quite incredible. The
interior is in simply superb condition. She is in great shape with
no unsightly wear on the seats, carpets or headliner. All the
man-made materials like the dash, console, door panels, carpets,
headliner, switches and controls are incredibly like new. The
natural leather has just the right amount of, what I call; "early
baseball glove patine". This is very rare to see with these cars as
you either have wear-thru on the leather at the squab bolsters and
seat cushions, and/or the "horse-hair" padding breaks down and the
entire seat upholstery becomes floppy and out of
