The message was: ‘Fancy a trip to the coast to look at an old Merc?’ Since the friend who sent it lives in Istanbul, I had dreams of a restorative dip in the Mediterranean followed by some tasty Turkish food. Unfortunately I was more likely to get cockles than kebabs, because the car he was interested in was in Southend in Essex. Oh well, the seaside is the seaside, even if it would involve a stint on the M25 rather than a flight to Antalya.
Ben’s a Brit who wanders the globe living in cool places and buying nice old classics to drive around while he’s there. When I first met him some 20 years ago he was heavily into classic Minis and Peugeot 205 GTis, plus he also had a half share in a Ford Escort RS2000 Mk2 which he sold some time ago, before prices soared to the unlikely heights they now scale. His plan now was to buy an old diesel Mercedes from the 1970s, one of the mid-sized saloons with stack headlights known to Merc fetishists as a W114 or 115 (depending on the engine).
Being a bit of a serial old Merc botherer myself, I tried to talk him out of his chosen engine. I’ve nothing against oil burners. My everyday driver is a 15-year old BMW with a turbocharged diesel engine. It goes like hell, drinks far less fuel than it has a right to and with 160k on the
