Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 23 posts

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#11

Post by TacticalCoder »

dawidloubser wrote: post #8
hinkley wrote: post #4

Hydraulic power windows?? In doors? Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.

And hydraulic power back seats, and a hydraulic sun roof (!!) and hydraulic power aerial, and hydraulic controls for the air suspension. Some models even had a hydraulic glass partition between driver and passengers. Absolute nuts. But the high point of dead-silent, powerful, smooth conveniences no matter the maintenance cost.

> Absolute nuts. But the high point of dead-silent, powerful, smooth conveniences no matter the maintenance cost.

Wife's car broke down (probably the water pump or just a loose hose) on the highway while coming back from vacation. As it was a very busy day where we were (France), there were not any regular cab left so the insurance company sent us a driver with... a Mercedes S class 550 (not a taxi but a private driver: no "cab / taxi" thinggy on the roof). It's still as you wrote: dead-silent, powerful and silky smooth.

Diesel engine but as a passenger I honestly couldn't tell, even though I'm a petrolhead and tend to notice these things.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#12

Post by bri3d »

hinkley wrote: post #4

Hydraulic power windows?? In doors? Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.

Mercedes love using Anything But Electronics; even into the 2000s they made cars with pneumatic power locks. I believe there was a philosophy that electronic running gear felt wrong.

This trend was not universal as my W260 G-Class has only electronic gear (locks windows, etc.), but I believe this was an anomaly amongst Mercedes models.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#13

Post by m463 »

hinkley wrote: post #4

Hydraulic power windows?? In doors? Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.

looking at wikipedia:

  "In 1963 the Mercedes-Benz 600 was the most expensive car in the world."
I expect there was a team of people mobilized to maintain these vehicles.

That said, I retrofitted a hydraulic clutch on a dirt bike that came with a cable clutch. The precision movement was so wonderful. I guess by carefully sizing the "sending" and "receiving" cylinders, you can easily choose the exact amount of movement or force you want.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#14

Post by technothrasher »

dawidloubser wrote: post #8
hinkley wrote: post #4

Hydraulic power windows?? In doors? Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.

And hydraulic power back seats, and a hydraulic sun roof (!!) and hydraulic power aerial, and hydraulic controls for the air suspension. Some models even had a hydraulic glass partition between driver and passengers. Absolute nuts. But the high point of dead-silent, powerful, smooth conveniences no matter the maintenance cost.

I used to have a Ferrari 355 with a hydraulic soft top… sort of. The hydraulics (when they worked) only got the top part of the way up, and you had to manually finish the job. If the hydraulics didn’t work, or the seat and window sensors didn’t work, which was frequently, you were out of luck. If you disconnected the hydraulic system you could do the whole job manually and it was actually faster to do it that way.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#15

Post by sonofhans »

dawidloubser wrote: post #6

I've always been into vintage Mercedes-Benz cars. A talented and wonderfully jovial mechanic ran a specialist workshop east of Johannesburg, in Brakpan (South Africa). For a long time he had a Mercedes 600 - similar to the linked video but with the M100 engine naturally-aspirated as standard - in the shop. That particular car, finished in a cream colour, belonged to Ian Smith (1919-2007), the last colonial prime mini…

I agree about Mercedes quality. The difference between them and other cars like Rolls or Bentley, I think, is that Mercedes were made to be owned and serviced by regular people. They were built to be exceptionally robust, and that took pride of place (for a while) over technical and luxury features.

The biggest Merc I’ve had was a W126, a 300SDL, and that was magnificent.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#16

Post by hinkley »

m463 wrote: post #13
hinkley wrote: post #4

Hydraulic power windows?? In doors? Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.

looking at wikipedia: "In 1963 the Mercedes-Benz 600 was the most expensive car in the world." I expect there was a team of people mobilized to maintain these vehicles. That said, I retrofitted a hydraulic clutch on a dirt bike that came with a cable clutch. The precision movement was so wonderful. I guess by carefully sizing the "sending" and "receiving" cylinders, you can easily choose the exact amount of movement…

The best thing about the British roadster I had was that if you were real careful you could get it moving from a standstill in third gear. Compared to the piece of shit X-shaped transmission on a piece of shit Chevy with no torque that I learned on, this was a godsend.

Some of that was the hydraulic clutch, and part the engine - which descended from tractor engine designs. But the other thing you could do on that transmission was stomp on the clutch pedal, shift out of 2nd on the way to the floor, and into 3rd on the way back up. Where your foot was, the clutch plate was, down to the mm. Fastest I ever shifted a car without double clutching.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#17

Post by jauntywundrkind »

bri3d wrote: post #12
hinkley wrote: post #4

Hydraulic power windows?? In doors? Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.

Mercedes love using Anything But Electronics; even into the 2000s they made cars with pneumatic power locks. I believe there was a philosophy that electronic running gear felt wrong. This trend was not universal as my W260 G-Class has only electronic gear (locks windows, etc.), but I believe this was an anomaly amongst Mercedes models.

And then when they did start replacing all their pneumatics, they used bio-safe wire insulators... That degraded inside the car. Caused unbelievably massive problems.

The 1987 W126 is often regarded as the last truly overbuilt car available from Mercedes. In sizable part because of the switch to electrical systems.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#18

Post by scrlk »

doener wrote: post #2

The list of notable owner is long. "Josip Broz Tito, who owned four 1965 LWB 6-door Pullmans, one of which was armoured, and two LWB Pullman landaulets, acquired in 1971 and 1978 respectively (both of these were of the very-rare type where the folding parade roof extends to cover 2/3rds of the vehicle top, only 9 were made with such a roof arrangement and 6 doors, and Tito was the only statesman in the world at the t…

To quote Jeremy Clarkson, who got cut off by a bus whilst driving his 600 on Top Gear:

> You wouldn't do that to most 600 drivers, mate. You'd be in the boot without your head.

https://youtu.be/5GFNxvauy28?t=120

And at the end of the clip, a comparison of Rolls-Royce Corniche and 600 owners: https://youtu.be/5GFNxvauy28?t=497 :^)

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#19

Post by peterbecich »

dawidloubser wrote: post #8
hinkley wrote: post #4

Hydraulic power windows?? In doors? Man, I had enough trouble bleeding a hydraulic clutch properly, and that line was maybe 30 inches tops.

And hydraulic power back seats, and a hydraulic sun roof (!!) and hydraulic power aerial, and hydraulic controls for the air suspension. Some models even had a hydraulic glass partition between driver and passengers. Absolute nuts. But the high point of dead-silent, powerful, smooth conveniences no matter the maintenance cost.

In addition to those reasons, the pneumatic system was smaller than an equivalently powerful electric motor, at that time, so I've been told.

Re: 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor [video]

#20

Post by cpursley »

trhway wrote: post #7

Back then they were saying that the largest market for MB 600 in 90-ies was Russia. Whether it was so or not, it definitely was the car to drive for the mafiosos and for the government bureaucrats. In the bleak, dirty, poor USSR/Russia those cars looked like they were out-of-this-world, and in many senses they were. They were de-facto separating 2 castes of people - the new elite, so called "new Russians", from the r…

Don’t forget Jeep Grand Cherokees! They loved those things (Brat 1). Worse piece of shit I’ve owned but also my favorite of all time.
Post reply on HN