The first years with my 230E

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

by Hubertus Hansmann:

"With still around 18.000 cars on the roads only in Germany, the W123s popularity is only beaten by the Volkswagen Beetle in the ranking of the number of cars with the German "H-Kennzeichen", the special registration plate you can get for cars older than 30 years and in at least average condition. As a student, I bought my own 230E-W123 as a daily driver, to preserve my Fintail-Diesels condition (that by the way was VERY bad, as I had to learn some years later).

The W123 was just a baker´s dozen year old car, but even as it was a car, you saw lots and lots of on the road, mine was in excellent condition (better than most of the cars, I saw that time) and from the beginning, I wanted to keep the car for a very long time. Because of that, it was stored in a shed over the winter months and I slowly began to "pimp" the car a little bit.

As it is one of the 3rd-series cars, it already had the better looking headlamps, formerly only mounted at the 6-cylinder cars. But some work had to be done, to get the perfect 123er look. So I visited some junkyards in the area and found very good Coupé-bumpers and for the interior the walnut-wood parts only mounted in the 1st-series coupé. I got some discount (poor student with - or better "because of" -  big car...) and had to pay 140 DM (about 70€) for both, the bumpers and the complete walnut-trim. Afterwards the indicators were changed to ones with grey glasses and I mounted Fuchs-Barock-Wheels.

A friends father brought his 280E to the junkyard and I was allowed to screw of the chrome-plated air inlets. In the following year, my mother wanted to sell her 2nd-series W123 and mostly because of the front-armrest that was mounted in her car, I changed the seats and the door-panels. So I only needed a rev-meter (one of my first ebay-auction-wins) and a wooden Nardi-wheel (at the moment mounted to my nowadays summer daily driving W201) to make the car perfect for me.

The W123 was used for many tours with my student-friends, as a big trunk beer carrier for Rock-am-Ring and for the Wacken Open Air and I enjoyed it every day (except of the winter-days of course). But during my time at the University, the taxes for cars without catalyser exploded and I couln´t afford them anymore. For two more years, I drove the car only in the summer season and thought about selling it. But what a luck (my todays view), many people sold their non-catalyser-cars during that time and the paid prizes decreased to a very low standard. So as I didn´t want to give it away under "my" prize, I stored the car in a shed again. For 12 years... Last Autumn, I trailered the dust coverd car to our little workshop, planning to bring it back to the road. Some work is already done and I hope to pass the TüV-check next spring."

...to be continued! (text & photos Hubertus Hansmann)
Words and pictures: Hubertus Hansmann 

Ajoutez un commentaire...