[R129 SL] R129LIST Digest, Vol 49, Issue 12

[Peter S]

Hi Bill,

Just a short not to say we had an excellent Rally, ate lots, and drove about 1,000 km.  Went on private back roads on the East Coast of our north island (gravel, shingle, rocks etc) so scraped the 129 a few times.  Saw waterfalls I never knew existed, and visited some very stately homes (for lunches, teas etc).  The private road was basically a ledge on the side of a 2,000 foot hill, then across the flattish ridge tops.  Could see about 50 miles in each direction and along the East Coast!   

Did not even realise that a 'retired farmer', just 8 km from where I live, actually makes engines for vintage cars (1898 - 1920) - most of the car engines are one off's , like the cars they go into.  Mostly made for customers  from Canada/ USA.  They make all the patterns etc out of timber and are 'perfect' - have a few photo's but was so impressed, like other members of our clubs.  They are also making 12 x simplex engines - one apparently for an early Mercedes Benz. The engine blocks, heads, crankshafts, pistons etc take a long time to make as they have to be perfect.  They also cast manifolds etc.  We saw some unique cars in his garage ( I have never heard of half of them!).  He is really into the early Chevrolets (up to 1930), but has a 7 litre Dodge for his day car (big as a truck).  Also has a one off Chevrolet (circa 1930) that is absolute pure luxury - hope to have a ride in it one day.  

Thanks for the good wishes and for your efforts in helping with such great weather.  I went through a small town called Otane on Saturday - temperature was 38 degrees and tar was melting on the road.  R129 now appears as a brown dust heap so will have to wash all the car and engine to remove the dust.

Have a great week and happy motoring if you can manage to scrape the snow off the roads.

Kind Regards, Peter S.   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: William Ricketts 
  To: Peter S ; SL Mailing List 
  Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 10:45 AM
  Subject: Re: [R129 SL] R129LIST Digest, Vol 49, Issue 12


  Hi Peter et al;

  We'll be around 24 degrees C tonight ourselves, minus 24 that is!  Bit of a cold snap, but Wilson (98 SL500) is doing very well in the cold...excellent heating system that I will continue to test for cold weather performance.

  But I do envy your temperature and rally weather, enjoy!

  Bill
  Halifax, Canada
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Peter S 
    To: SL Mailing List 
    Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:43 PM
    Subject: Re: [R129 SL] R129LIST Digest, Vol 49, Issue 12


    Hi Henry,

    It takes ages, but I have gleaned a lot of production figures etc for Merc Benz Cars off the net, and some of the data sits in files that I have on 3 PC's.  Luckily I have a SATA drive backup of all our home and office PC's in case something crashes!

    However, the figures I grabbed for yesterdays email came from a book by Robert Nitske.  He wrote a number of books on Mercedes Benz cars and is the owner of a Wankel C111 (Only about 5 were made) - never went into production.  The book I have covers production cars from 1946 to 1995 and has some interesting information - I believe this book is a must for Mercedes Benz enthusiasts. I do have about 50 books on Mercedes Benz Cars though!  The book only has production model numbers up to 1992 and there may be a later edition out now as the book keeps getting updated.  

    Wikipedia on the net is also a very interesting source of information, and some of the information is misplaced.  For instance, production years for MB cars for 1980 to the present day seems to sit under Mercedes Benz C111 (just google Mercedes Benz C111 - Wiki and you should have the site available to log onto.) 

    There are also sites (reference is in my high speed home PC) that display an array of the fuel use, acceleration details etc of every model from about 1940 to today.  You can not download or even print from this site, but, you can view and write out details if required.  If interested, I will get the website details for this information.   

    Hope this information helps.
    Our "Tour de Tararua", Mercedes Benz Rally starts at 5 pm tonight (4 day Rally around the mid lower central North Island of New Zealand), so have just got a Warrant of Fitness (MOT in the UK), and have washed the 123 and the 129 so am all ready and gassed up!  Temperature is 24 degrees C at the moment so the rest of the day could be 'warm'.  Have a few reports and specifications to write before I can begin the long weekend.

    Kind Regards, and have a great weekend, Peter S.  

      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Mainwari8 at aol.com 
      To: r129list at mbcoupes.com 
      Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 4:11 AM
      Subject: Re: [R129 SL] R129LIST Digest, Vol 49, Issue 12



      In a message dated 1/14/09 6:47:51 PM, r129list-request at mbcoupes.com writes:



        From: "Peter S" <joyce.pm at xtra.co.nz>



      HI Peter, Read your e mail on the R129 site with interest. I'm interested in getting production figures for all the R129 years (1990-2002) and sales figures for the USA foR those years. I'd appreciate any suggestions you have on sources for this info. 
      Thanks
      Henry
      1998 SL500


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