Tag: Strich Acht

It’s Not How Far You Fall, It’s the Way You Land

Sometimes a quantum leap is called for, but care is required.

Image: internationalbanker
Image: internationalbanker

Editor’s note: Today’s piece is a revised version of an article first published on DTW in July 2016.

“Evolution: /e-va-loo’ shan/ n  The cumulative change in the genetic composition of an organism over succeeding generations, resulting in a species totally different from remote ancestors.”

What we’re looking at here is a collection of what we now would term E-Class Mercedes generations, from the W120/121 Ponton, up to the 2016 (and about to be superseded) W213 series. But this image is not the point of today’s exercise. What I would like to do instead is to Continue reading “It’s Not How Far You Fall, It’s the Way You Land”

A Different Shade of Beige

Best known as Germany’s Taxi of choice, the Mercedes /8 has languished under the shadow of more celebrated siblings. Time for a fare hearing.

(c) gdtm

Prior to 1970, all licenced taxis within the Federal Republic of West Germany were painted black. They also for the most part consisted of the products of Stuttgart-Untertürkheim. During the wirtschaftswunder era, the diesel-powered Mercedes came to embody virtues of solid dependability, frugality and long-life, as endorsed by the huge, largely trouble-free mileages these vehicles amassed in the public hire trade.

When Mercedes-Benz launched what were termed the ‘new generation’ cars in 1968, perhaps unsurprisingly, the values they espoused were of a familiar, conservative nature. Yet in its own way, the /8 (or Strich Acht – a term employed to denote the model year), was itself something of a revolutionary. Continue reading “A Different Shade of Beige”