Of course, there are already books on the successful W 124 mid-range from Mercedes-Benz. Motorbuch-Verlag was probably aware of this and therefore launched a book that should fit into any budget at a price of 12.95 euros.
And as the W 124 is about to roll up the German classic car market - it is certainly on its way up in the H registration statistics - there should also be enough people who would like to know more about the history and variants of the W 124 model series.
The last mid-range Mercedes
Author Alexander Franc Storz already refers to the "last mid-range Mercedes" in the introduction. He points out that the successor was significantly larger and had an S-Class format, so to speak. And he suggests that the W 124 was also a design milestone.
From design to production
Visually, the W 124 adopted design elements from the baby Benz W 201 (190E), but Bruno Sacco transferred these with vision and created a modern-looking and appealing mid-range saloon that was also well received by older customers.
The chapter on the objectives for form and technology is comparatively short, but Storz devotes a separate chapter to the "4Matic" all-wheel drive system.
Of course, the model update innovations, known as MOPF for short, are also included in the book, but here too there is no meticulous listing of changes and innovations. Instead, pictures show the changes.
In addition, of course, the basic factory variants of saloon, estate (T-model), coupé and cabriolet are introduced.
The Über-W 124
A separate chapter is also devoted to the 500 E built by Porsche, which rolled off the production line where the 959 was previously manufactured. It was the sports car among the saloons and, surprisingly even for the gentlemen at Daimler-Benz, 10,479 of them were built.
It's nice that the book contains many pictures from production.
Tuning excesses and special bodies
Storz devotes almost a third of the book to tuning variants of the W 124 and special bodies. This may be an abomination for fans of originality, but it is interesting to see what companies from AMG to Zehnder did with the comparatively bland 124 model series. The addition of SL and SEC front elements was particularly popular, but the refiners did not hold back when it came to wheel sizes and interior upgrades either.
Things got really exotic with the conversions, most of which no longer bore the star but the brand name of the coachbuilder. For example, Lorenz & Rankl realized a convertible based on the W-124 before the factory jumped on the bandwagon. Something very special was the Borchert B 300 C-24 Biturbo, which was given a body by Zagato that was visually based on the SL (R 129) of the time, but with a fixed roof and the length of a 190E. Together with the three-liter engine with 320 hp, the car, of which only eleven were built, should also be of interest today as a classic.
Storz describes and illustrates tuning variants and special bodies including hearse/ambulance and long-wheelbase versions with great dedication and these chapters alone are perhaps worth the price of the book.
And the version from South Korea
The author does not stop at the extensively modified W 124 either. He also provides a chapter on the licensed SsangYoung Chairman H version, which used the technology of the mid-range model discontinued by Mercedes from 1997 onwards, but was visually more in the style of the S-Class W 140.
This model might also have become very popular here, but Mercedes successfully refused to sell it in Europe.
Somewhat brief
There is also a chapter on model cars and a brief statistics section with engine data, technical specifications and prices in Germany. Here, of course, more would really have been more and also with the illustrations you have to make some concessions in terms of sharpness, which is surprising for a car that was produced until 1993, especially as the choice of images is not always convincing. Here you can feel the cost pressure, which is mild in view of the really attractive book price.
Anyone who wants to quickly read up on the "last Mercedes mid-range" will therefore be well served, and anyone who has to have all the books on the model series will buy the book anyway, because despite only 96 pages, they will certainly find information that is missing elsewhere.
Bibliographical details
- Title: Mercedes-Benz W 124 (Schrader-Typen-Chronik)
- Author: Alexander Franc Storz
- Language: German
- Edition: 1st edition, January 2015
- Format: hardcover, 96 pages, 24 x 22 cm, 145 color pictures and 7 b/w illustrations
- Price: 12.95 € / 18.20 CHF
- Order: Online at amazon.de
, at the publisher Motorbuch or in well-assorted bookstores
