Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3

Donovans Restored 1971 Mercedes 6.3 litre 300 SEL

The original owner of this car was 1960/1970 pop icon Donovan. This model is one of the most expensive saloon cars Mercedes have made. The car was built in 1971 but registered in England in 1972. During the time Donovan owned the car it was often driven from his home on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey to the Hard Rock café in London, often at speeds of 100mph plus where possible. The car was also featured in a promotional video with Donovan where it is being driven down the Marylebone Road in London. George Harrison from the Beatles and Bobby Whitlock from Derek and the Dominoes have also travelled in it amongst other celebrities.Donovan also used the car in Ireland for a while.

It took roughly two years to restore the car. It was then featured in a few magazines as well as mentions on Radio2 and Capital Gold. The car has also been featured on the Mercedes Enthusiast calendar, and has been on display at Mercedes Benz World, Brooklands Surrey. It is a wonder that the car was still around to restore after its hard life especially as it was left outside in fields in the English weather for approximately five years after Donovan sold it. The car is presently used for occasional wedding hire work and is registered for film hire.

The car has been restored using original parts, although all the air pipes and gearbox fluid pipes have been replaced with copper nickel instead of steel pipes. The points and condenser have also been replaced with Pertronix electronic ignition. The interior wood sections which were in very poor condition have been renovated back to original.

To retain the original feel and period vibe of the car the leather has been kept along with the original carpets. The leather has been re dyed and is regularly coated and kept at the corect humidity to keep it supple. Despite some small blemishes it is generally considered that the leather interior and carpets are in very good condition for the age and the previous very hard life of the car. It can be seen that Donovan stuck one of his promotional record stickers on the back of the front drivers seat and great care was taken to dye around the sticker. Some of the exterior and interior chrome work is original, although most has been replaced. To keep the original feel of of the interior the sill tread plates are original although due to wear some of them have small scratches.

As can be seen from one of the photographs the car is parked next to Rolls-Royce owned by the Beatles. Donovan is also in the driving seat in another photograph, this was taken in June 2005 during his UK tour.  The long rear doors mean that this car was built to be chauffeured in rather than drive yourself. The car is considered advanced for its years as it uses adjustable self-levelling air suspension coupled with a large 6.3 litre twin ncamshaft fuel injected V8 engine, which delivers plenty of power and torque. Acceleration of 0-60 mph is approximatley 6 seconds. On a run you can acheive 12 mpg, around town approximately 8mpg. It is possible to cruise at 90/100mph quite comfortably. It was for its time the fastest saloon car around for many years. Their were only approximately 650 of these cars made in right hand drive, and over the years most have been broken up mainly due to a combination of very high restoration costs, technical complexity and hard to locate spares. At present market prices it is often uneconomical to fully restore these cars as the restoration  costs far outweigh what they are presently worth. Due to the very extensive thorough restoration,condition and history this 6.3 car is classed as one of the best and interesting right hand drive models around. The car is complete with the original sales brochure, Logbook,Pink card,many tax discs and MOT certificates. as well as the original oval shaped number plates.Interestingly there is still a box of toothpicks used by Donovan in the glove box. There is also a Sony transistorised Television which at the time was the smallest portable television in production and was used in some luxury cars.

For further information about this car and restoration of these cars visit:

 www.barrattscarhire.co.uk or Freephone 0808 1680063