Besides the air of superiority that the cachet of the Three-Pointed Star is supposed to bestow onto the buyer, what are the good things about a Mercedes-Benz? Good build quality, surprising durability, and the ability to run on the Autobahns of Germany at speed…good speed, at that. Which meant that the 107-chassis cars were a great fit for the American market, where domestically, cars were becoming larger, slower, and fluffier. Even the Ford Mustang went on a big-boy kick for a couple of years before morphing into the sporting Pinto model that everyone loves to hate on. Picking up the Benz if you had the money to do so just made good sense.
Jamming a 429 Cobra Jet under the hood of the Benz, however…
We don’t know the full story on just how this “Cobra Benz” came to be, but someone was bent on getting rid of the Merc’s original 4.5L unit for something a damn sight bigger during what looks to be a very tasteful resto-modification of the car. Well…we aren’t sold on the “Cobra Benz” stripes and Cobra badges, but as far as the car itself, imagine ripping along some interstate, the wind whistling past the roll hoop that looks to be pirated from a 1990s Mustang Cobra, the 429 singing the best of 1971 out of the twin cannons underneath the rear bumper. Mercedes purists will puke on their shoes, but so what? We do get a kind of funky early 1990s vibe with the wheels, like this car should’ve been parked up for a Sir Mix-A-Lot video, and we’d love to see this car show up at an all-Ford meet just to mess with heads. It’d be perfect retaliation for all of the LS-swapped Foxes out there, right?
Bring A Trailer Auction: Lot #9617 – 1973 Mercedes-Benz 450SL
10 lbs. of shit in a 5 lb. bag. Hood scoop ? Fat racing stripe ? Pep Boys trunk spoiler ? Nose heavy boat anchor ? JC Whitney wheels ? Mehhhh !
I love it when you can piss off both sides of the pond with one car.
Come on!
Its not a Chevy motor and all it needs is to be returned to stock appearance without those tacky wheels, stripes and spoiler.