mercedes benz W108 - paul bracq

Every time a new S-class Mercedes is released it re-writes the standards of the highest echelons of luxury car engineering and equipment. Since the W111 was released in 1959, the s-class Mercedes has been regarded as the standard-setter in hi-end automobiles.

In 1965, the W111, or 'heckflosse' was replaced with the new W108 s-class. Immediately obvious was that it was a bigger car - a full five meters long from bumper tip to bumper tip. Paul Bracq, the then-head of MB design began by lopping off the fins of the previous model - a controversial addition, sometimes suggested to have been added to make the car more popular in the U.S. A gloriously large glasshouse dominates the car's profile, also making its interior a very pleasant place to be. Proportionately broad, the 108's focal point is the trademark grille and three-pointed star. A black-on-chrome belt line encircles the whole car, save for the nose where the leading edges of the bonnet terminate at the half height of the grille's body. 'Tombstone' headlamps lend an upright look to the front fenders, in the same way that the same items did on the six-cylinder W111's.

As always, chrome featured like loosely worn jewellery. Not an ostentatious car by any stretch, the grille, belt-line and glass house trim share paint-work space with only the door handles, the headlamp surrounds, boot handle and badging, and those dominant double-decker bumpers.

Inside, the Bakelite wheel dominates a wood-faced dash. Vinyl capped dash covers all the stainless-surrounded HVAC controls and often, a then state of the art Becker Mexico Autoradio. On original cars, one can still find a solitary speaker under a perforated grille in the dash's centre. A pair of easy-to-read VDO dials share space in a binnacle and provide all the data that the sixties motorist could wish for; road speed, coolant temperature, oil pressure & tank level.

Inside and out, the W108 saloons were svelte and minimalist. Only where necessary did the design offer 'thickness', such as the width of the c-pillar. Small tail-lamps like an afterthought worked perfectly and, as the second instalment in a long line of models, the classic Mercedes colour-coded, relief detailed hub cap gave a heavy car a light look.

Driving one of these machines today is an experience savoured by everyone, car enthusiast or not. Power steering, four-wheel discs, and silk ZF automatic gearboxes make them as easy to drive as a modern hatch, and air conditioning, central locking, electric sunroof and powered windows on some models make them as easy to live with. The feel of every control on one of these cars is the feel of quality, from operating a door lock or twisting the key in the ignition to pulling the bonnet release and treading the brakes. Selecting drive on the column mounted selector in an early car leaves you in no doubt that when they were new, they were the best cars in the world - and many are still trying to catch up.

Paul Bracq may have well done his finest work, for MB or otherwise, on the W108 S-class. Like almost all luxury sedans they are quickly forgotten when they're superseded by a new model, but the 108 will remain amongst the finest of the company's saloons ever created.