1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SE

Description

Mercedes-Benz could say of their 280SE 3.5 is that “at 100 mph, the loudest sound you hear is the air-condi­tioner.” And they could say that even if the rest of the car was clattering away like a sack full of cowbells, because the air-conditioner is noisy. It does the job effec­tively and only somewhat obtrusively, as long as you don’t need anything more than low-blower strength. If it gets really warm, and you get the blower up on the high end of the rheostat, the unit sounds like it’s going to huff, and puff, and blow the windshield out.

After all the high speed stuff, and while still in Nevada, we took a side trip up to Virginia City—because that is a good place to visit and because the road up there is attractively swoopy and seldom obstructed by traffic. Right there, on that kind of road, is where you can learn to like the 280SE a lot. How can you fail to like it, when it keeps proving that it is your friend?

Proves it by going where it is aimed, and agree­ably changing direction when asked. You can lift off in the middle of a briskly-taken turn and the tail doesn’t try to swing out, and the moderate understeer stays moder­ate. A dab at the brake is possible, too, without getting yourself into trouble, and trouble is what you get by the bag trying to brake in the middle of a turn with cars that lack the 280SE’s fundamental balance.