Saturday, March 05, 2011

CL500 (S500 Coupe) W140

W140 S500 Coupe 1993 (Dec Production)
It is official and yet ambivalent of the S-class coupe that I recently acquired. The front-end can be described as between embarrassing and ugly.

CL stands for Comfort and Leicht. Leicht means easy, light, simple, mild, smooth, gentle, effortless, light-hearted...Those are the closest descriptions I could associate with the CL, during the past four days.

The CL 500 was considered by most experts the best model in terms of power, weight distribution and equipment for the base price. The M119 5.0 L V8 engine was considered one of the best engines ever produced by the German manufacturer and being much lighter at the front, the CL 500 tended to have better handling characteristics than the heavier V12 flagship. - A quote from Wiki.
The clean engine bay display really shines for an 18-year old car.

























W126 560SEC 1981-1992
I have always had a heart for a white 560SEC, the predecessor of the CL500 you see here. A month ago during a visit to the car junk yard I saw a white sample, which I turned down because it was too huge a restoration project for a beginner like me. So I settle for the second best - an 1993 early year S500 Coupe. It was a little strange as I had been looking for a C43 or C36.
A typical old-school luxury interior from the 1990s.

Best angle for appreciating the whale-size CL.

A clean rear-end treatment.