Last updated on April 6, 2023
Today’s car is a 1952 Mercedes-Benz W187 220 Saloon owned by Brent James. I photographed this car at Golden Cove the mostly British Cars and Coffee get together located at Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. It is finished in Silver with a light grey cloth herringbone interior. It is powered by a 80 hp, 2.2 liter, single overhead cam straight-6 engine, with a Solex 30 PAAJ carburetor. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a column-shifted four-speed manual transmission with 4.41:1 rear axle. Slowing this baby down are 10.2 inch duplex drum brakes in all 4-corners. It has independent front suspension with double-wishbone with struts and coil springs and a front stabilizer bar. The independent rear suspension has swing axle with coil springs.
The Mercedes-Benz W187 220’s were built from 1951 through 1955 with a total of 18,514 produced, but the saloons were only built from 1951 to 1954 with a total 0f 16,154 produced. The MSRP was 12,525 Deutsche Marks (DM) or $2,982.00 US dollars. The best conversion I could find was 4.20DM = $1.00 in 1952. With a published top speed of 84 mph with a 0-60 mph time of 17.2 seconds. This is a beautiful example of an original car with a touch of personal preference (the exterior color) in the post war era. What a great car to take to European and Mercedes-Benz everts, Cars and Coffee events or I would personally love to show up for dinner reservations at my favorite local restaurant. Thanks for riding along. Frank
