In the 1960s, buying a Mercedes 600 usually meant you were one of two things. Either your career in Hollywood had gone off with a bang and you were the talk of the town, or you were the President and Prime Minister of Cuba.
Thankfully matters are not quite as black and white (or communist red) as they once were, though that still doesn’t mean that just anybody can buy a 600.
There were for instance only 2190 examples of the short-wheelbase W100 version made, one of which we stumbled across in Dubai’s Al Quoz industrial area at Living Classics. If you wanted a long-wheelbase version, there would only be 428 to choose from. And the convertible(ish) Landaulet? Well, only 59 people managed to get their hands on one of those.
So just over 2600 were made in nearly 20 years. That might have something to do with the limousine’s luxurious nature, which boasted the plushest leathers, tip-top hydraulics that ensured no noise at all when putting the windows down, and enough legroom to seat the Dallas Cowboys in comfort. But (originally) with a Mercedes six-cylinder engine and a weight tipping the scales at just over 3000kg, you wouldn’t have been able to get them too far.
That changed in 1968 with the installation of a new 250hp 6.3-litre V8, making the 600 temporarily the fastest four-door saloon in the world.
The introduction of the S-Class though, plus a poorly timed oil crisis for the boys and girls in Stuttgart, meant that by 1981 the 600’s days were numbered.
That doesn’t mean that thirty years in the shadows has harmed this particular W100 600, however. Indeed it’s perfectly content to sit and wait for its next day in the sun. Or its return to Hollywood.
