The Mercedes 600

By Bernd S. Koehling

Developed with costs being no object, the 600 was a majestic, technically highly advanced limousine. It was above anything that had been introduced so far and for many years, it would set the standards for what could be achieved technically. If you are interested to read more about this fascinating car, this e-book tells its story. Fully updated in Dec. 2016, it explains chassis number and data card in great detail, discusses the recent price developments and comes with many recent color photos. A separate chapter lets you experience, how it was to be a chauffeur in a Pullman for the German government.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bernd S. Koehling
• Release date: May 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476205991

Bernd S. Koehling

With over 25 books and e-books written about Mercedes-Benz cars, Bernd S. Koehling has proven to be an authority on the brand. Those books cover cars from the 1947 170V to the 2012 SL R231. Bernd has been involved in the Mercedes scene since the early 1970s, when he restored his first 170 Cabrio B. Since then he has not only owned many classic Mercedes including a 220S, 300d Adenauer, 200D, 250SE, 280SE coupe 3.5, 300SEL, 350SL, 280E, 450SE, SLK230, he has also gained a wealth of knowledge and experience, which he shares with his readers in his books. Bernd has always considered Mercedes one of his favorite car manufacturers and has driven almost all Mercedes models built since the 1950s. His other weakness revolves around British cars, here especially Jaguar and Alvis. If you would like to know more about Bernd's books or want to read his blog with selected Mercedes stories, why don't you visit his website: benz-books.com

Book preview

MERCEDES - BENZ

The Mercedes 600

W100

1963 – 1981

By Bernd S. Koehling

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2016 Bernd S. Koehling

All rights reserved

CONTENT

Foreword

The 600 W100 (1963 – 1981)

The dawn of a new era

Finding a suitable engine

Comfort features

The 600

The Pullman and Pullman Landaulet

The prices

The owners

The in-house conversions

Third party conversions

A possible face lift

A unique 600

The sales performance

Experiencing the 600

Technical chapters

The VIN explained

The data card

What is my car worth

The paint options

The interior color options

Technical specifications

Production history

Fritz Nallinger

About the author

One last thing

FOREWORD

First of all I would like to thank you for having purchased this book and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It is part of an e-book series that covers all cars produced by Daimler-Benz during the 1950s and 1960s.

The 300 Adenauer had been a car, nobody had expected from Daimler-Benz just a few years after the war. The same was true for the 300SL Gullwing. But what happened during the next decade? What did the company have in store for the 1960s? If one would have been a journalist at the end of the 1960s and looked back to what the decade had offered, one had to admit that Daimler-Benz again did not disappoint.

In 1961, the W112 300SE was introduced, but very few really saw in it the 300 Adenauer successor. That should change in 1963 though. The 300 Adenauer had found its uber-successor: the magnificent 600.

The press knew long before its launch in Sept. 1963 of its existence, but they did not know what the car was all about. Fritz Nallinger, chief engineer and member of the executive board, instructed his engineers that nobody was to see the car without his prior written consent. Once the 600 had been unveiled, everybody interested in cars knew, this was not just a statement of technology at its finest, this was a statement that emperors, kings, queens and heads of states had a home again when looking for suitable, technically advanced automotive transportation. The 600 was not only a replacement for the 300 Adenauer, it was more: the prewar 770 Grosse Mercedes had finally found its rightful continuation.

That the 600 did not sell as well as expected was not the car's fault. The market for such super cars might have been smaller than Daimler-Benz had envisioned. But whatever the sales outcome, the 600 was an image booster for all Daimler-Benz cars. Friedrich Geiger, Paul Bracq and their colleagues in the Wilfert design department were smart enough to give it sufficient similarities with the smaller Mercedes vehicles, so that every Mercedes owner could associate himself with that dream car.

This fully revised e-book offers more technical photos, a detailed explanation of the chassis number and data card and discusses the car’s recent price development. It covers the paints and interior colors that were available from the standard Daiml er-Benz brochure, although in case of the 600 this is somewhat meaningless, as the car could be ordered in almost any specification the customer desired. And it has a chapter that deals with a fairly special, some might say a somewhat strange 600.

Some of you have asked me, whether it is possible to include more information about the men that were responsible for all these wonderful cars. So this e-book has a chapter added, that covers the career of member of the board Fritz Nallinger. He was the driving force behind the 600. Other e-books cover people like Barényi, Uhlenhaut, Wilfert or Hoffman.

December 2016

Bernd S. Koehling

MB 600 W100 (1963 – 1981)

MB 600 Pullman 4 door W100 (1963 – 1981)

MB 600 Pullman 6 door W100 (1964 – 1981)

MB 600 Pullman Landaulet 4 door W100 (1965 – 1981)

MB 600 Pullman Landaulet 6 door W100 (1967 – 1981)

The dawn of a new era

Although he had forbidden his ministers and cabinet members to buy Mercedes-Benz cars due to cost reasons, Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt, was known to have enjoyed his stately 600 immensely. Also the Tennō, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, owned one. Of course he had to have the 600, he was an old customer of Daimler-Benz: the first car he had ordered in Stuttgart was a Mercedes 770 in 1935.

It had been a tradition of Daimler-Benz to have a car in their program that stood above the rest of the crowd. A monument that was available not only to kings and queens or heads of governments, but also to rich individuals. The K-models of the 1920s were followed by the 770 of the 1930s. They offered a huge variation of body designs to suit each customer's specific needs. And they also demonstrated with their enormous size their status as one of the best automobiles in the world. The war put of course an end to this and in the early 1950s Daimler-Benz had other priorities than to focus on a 770 successor. Although plans were discussed as early as 1947 to start producing a 500K or 540K successor, as it was believed that such a car would find sufficient customers in export markets. Wilhem Haspel, CEO of Daimler-Benz as of January 1st 1948, said already in a meeting on Dec. 22nd 1947: What is missing is a car that puts back the glory on the Mercedes star. Lack of money and production tools (but not engineering capacity) put the project on hold. The 300 Adenauer, although a luxury car in its own right, did not play in that league.

With the success of the 170 and ponton series, sufficient funds were finally available. In 1955 it became clear that Daimler-Benz wanted to aim for the stars again. This time the stars would not be the 540K anymore, that car had found its rightful successor already in the 300S, launched in 1951. This time aiming for the stars meant to build a successor of the 770. The best car in the world was perceived as an image bringer for the company. And as the racing department had been dissolved the previous year, highly qualified (and motivated) engineers were available to assist bringing this idea to life. Friedrich van Winsen, who became later head of the body-department, was to lead the project.

It was a dream project because there were no restrictions at all. The mission really was to design the best possible car that engineers and technicians could come up with, money being no object. But a dream project has two faces, one is that as an engineer you can