CLASS ACT

IT DASHED THROUGH THE MARKETPLACE AND DOWN A FAST FOUR-MILE STRAIGHT WHILE THE ATTENTION OF LOCAL POLICE WAS ELSEWHERE'

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Piling along. Not really wafting, though we're certainly surging between the bends. Yes, piling along feels about right. Long, straight French roads close to Le Mans, gently undulating countryside, old Routes Nationales, the kind of scenario for which Citroén developed the DS. Which is worth mentioning, as the Mercedes 450SEL 6.9 has very similar suspension, and possesses something the DS always lacked: suitable motive power. As Jay Leno said in the last issue of Octane: A luxury car with a four-cylinder engine and 100 horsepower is going to be a tough sell’ And this S-class has a V8. A very big V8.

It also represents the first of a new breed, one still going 50 years later: the Sonderklasse or Special Class’) is now in its seventh generation see Octane 232). Predecessors such as the Ponton’ saloon and the Fintail’ had been available with six-cylinder engines, and its immediate predecessor had even come as an SEL Sedan Enspritzung Lang or fuelinjected long-wheelbase saloon’), but this was a luxury car for the modern age. And, while there was a 2.8-litre straight-six footing the range, the 350 and 450 V8s clearly had their sights set on the USA market.

The full-fat 6.9 was still three years away when the W116 the S-Class’s internal designation) was launched to the press in Spain on 25 September 1972 just ahead of its public appearance at October’s Paris motor show. And that order is unusual. Mercedes-Benz’s publicity man Dirk Strassi had decided two years previously to release the still-secret S-Class to invited journalists on the Costa Brava, all staying at the exclusive Cap Sa Sal hotel while the sun still shone.