It was a Friday and it rained. It was a full and busy day at the office but I couldn't wait to get out to the Pak Lok Garage to greet and collect my C36. Tiki asked me to collect the car Saturday morning but indeed I couldn't wait another minute.
By the time I reached the garage it is already 7pm. I grabbed the key, took a quick look at the new roof lining, the stiffened front chair (new springs fitted because they sagged) and also the new leather on the steering wheel. In 5 minutes I was ready to go with my wife Tiki for a pizza dinner.
Boy, it was slippery. The low-rev torque made it fun and easy to spin the rear wheels in the wet, especially from the traffic light. And the tires came with the car are at least 4 years old, after checking the datecodes. Tire replacement was imminent.
The ride quality and the refinement was another sweet surprise. The damping was excellent but the magical Mecredes floating ride characteristics (C200 had it) was all gone. Damned. But the new ride quality was very much acceptable. No complaint.
The C36 tracked straight and true, but I found the car vague in the center and had not much steering feel. I was not happy with that because the C200 and C240 had better handling. I could only blame this one the poor tire condition as well as the wheel alignment. I was not eager to drive fast.
Another observation was that it was easy to get to 100kph and sometimes 130kph. But it felt like 80kph. It did not feel fast, especially when other cars were doing the same speed as I did. I was wondering if the speedometer was inaccurate. I needed to follow some minibuses in the tunnels so I could check their big speed display against mine when we would be doing the same speed.
Anyway I was tired of the work in the office and I was ready to go home after a lot of delicious pizza.
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