Something big happened in l;ast October: I started driving Persian Kitty to pick up my kids from school, it definitely worth celebrating and a post. Why? I will save this story for last, before that I would review all my experience with Persian Kitty in the last two years. I already posted <Impression: Acquisition of Persian Kitty> to introduce how he came to our home, today is the second part, how do I feel after the refinement?
Impression is a false proposition for people like me. When I accquire a car, I usually buy 50%-80% of it and the rest is my expectation. My picture in mind isn’t an aging car, I see it as it came from the factory, and that’s the goal. If I go through all the stages of achieving the goal, goal completion is not a surprise. Thus when I get a 95% car after all the work, I have no reason to dislike them, I already know Persian Kitty better than anyone, what else is there to be impressed? In some ways yes, but not quite all.
Sitting in this familiar car, I almost forgot my first impression when I saw him. I wanted him so much at that time, and the ambiguous period is always fascinated. Now I am more like a part of him. Anyway if I am pretending the car is a stranger, and what’s my impression?
Persian Kitty, a 1998 S 280 was an Iranian diplomatic vehicle in China. He served the Iranian ambassador in Beijing from 1998-2006, then the ambassador switched to the new 221 S-Class. Later traveled to the Iranian consulate in Shanghai where he served until 2017. Persian Kitty is a fun name that came to mind at the first sight, it is reminiscent of the F-14 Tomcat in Iran. What is common with those Tomcats is that the Persian Kitty is very offshore, although he was ordered in Tehran, he probably never traveled to Iran. In China he’s exotic and lonely, so I adopted this pitful car on his halfway to junkyard.
Things completely new is that Persian Kitty is my first standard wheelbase 140. But if I never drive in the back seat, the difference is mostly visual. We’ve all heard Bruno Sacco complained that the 140’s roof was higher than it should be, or that the long wheelbase should be the standard wheelbase. In other words, the 3040 mm standard wheelbase makes the car look a little chubby. Is everyone critic? I bet most people who are unfamiliar with the 140 can’t tell the difference of wheelbase, so they don’t think there’s anything weird about the Persian Kitty. For me, when I’m with the car, I usually don’t have the chance to stare at his body. If I’m, I get used to viewing him with lenses above 200 mm length, he’s not that chubby at this distance. Well, not a real problem.
Persian Kitty is also the first blue family member, although I had a 1999 CL 600 project before. 366 Azurite Blue looks black in shade and blue in sunlight. Of course you don’t want to look at the deep blue in the sun, as dust and scratches will be obvious. I’m not a fan of anything blue in general, so when I saw Persian Kitty I almost decided giving up the 1999 CL 600 in the same color. Interestingly, although people think that two-tone colors have disappeared since MY1997, this is not the case. For most colors since MY1997, the body and lower trim colors may be very close. An exception is made for Azurite Blue, the lower color 5218 looks more like purple in sunlight.
The only exterior issue that gives me a headache is the rims. Being an incorruptible diplomatic vehicle, Persian Kitty doesn’t come with any alloy wheels as an option, he has very original steel rim and hubcap. Here I would like to protest, since MY1994, W 124 received new hubcap, even at the end of its product life. However the 140 has never received a design updated hubcap since the 1991 launch, MB is too lazy! The original styling has a very 80s feel that clearly conflicts with this 1998 car. But being a fundamentalist, I won’t change the rim. So considering the aesthetics and ease of cleaning, I rarely install hubcaps and just use steel wheels. To be honest I prefer 6-loch, how beautiful they would be under the sunset!
As nearly the oldest car in the city (usually the age of the oldest car on the road depends on which 140 I drive), will Persian Kitty and I get any attention? rare. The truth is, classic cars are no longer defined by age alone. In the past, when you saw a car from 30 years ago and everything was so different from today’s cars. Well, let it be a classic! Now, Persian Kitty is not fundamentally different from today’s cars. With certain picky old-school terms, it also looks like it’s made of plastic. Maybe the pre-facelift would stunning people a little more, but this 1998 one with hubcaps probably never will again. Well, that’s actually an advantage, I don’t like being stared at.
My neighbor twice waited for my arrival next to Persian Kitty. He was about the same age as my father and owns several mordern luxurious cars. People are just amazed at how clean an old car like this could be and how affordable it is (I usually just speak out modest price if they have to get an answer). But the era of this car has passed. In the past, people loved or criticized it because of its size, or some picky complained about the 3040 mm wheelbase. It doesn’t matter today, cars longer than 5 meters are everywhere. I can’t think of any reason to spend time emphasizing in the article how he looks like a “tank”. To me Persian Kitty can only be described as “old”, no different from those surviving old Volkswagens.
In the cab, the atmosphere is no different from other 140s despite the color. Persian Kitty is my first car with grey interior. The entire upper half of the car is dark gray. At that time, Mercedes still considered safety a priority, and all uphoslstery near the windows were darker than the main theme to reduce reflections on the glass. This makes the car somewhat dull, but it really works. A friend who has been in several of my 140s reviews the grey interior like this: it’s a bit like a taxi. Well, he’s probably right, a lot of compact cars from the ’90s had grey plastic interiors, vinyl doesn’t help here. Black does give you a deeper sense of luxury.
I particularly adored the flawless Eucalyptus trim, one big reason I fell in love with Persian Kitty. I think it’s more elegant than the dark Walnuts of the same period, and also an improvement compared to the “dard red” Zebravo from MY1995. Fortunately it’s standard, unfortunately in most markets dealer will option the Walnuts. As I polished all the boards so they were extra bright. These shiny woods remind me of the definition of beauty. Of course, the center console looks empty, without any extra buttons.
Velor seats won’t absorb a lot of heat on a hot summer day, nor will they freeze your butt in the winter. You don’t have to worry about velvet wearing out, but it does attract dirt easily and is harder to clean than leather, which is why velor is more affordable than leather yet is always found on authority and royal cars – you need to keep yours always absolutely clean, a hidden asset. Of course, the Iranian diplomats who used this car are not included, the interior was crazy dirty. I think one advantage of the MY1998 is that the front armrest uses leather instead of velvet, which only happened with the MY1998, so I can rest my elbows on it very confidently without worrying the dirt on my arms.
The lack of options is a good guarantee of the reliability of this diplomatic car. Absent from the typical S-Class package are power seats, heated seats, sunroof, door-closing assist. You could argue they’re all unnecessary, but I don’t appreciate the manual adjustment of the steering wheel, because the steering wheel can only be adjusted by pulling to adjust the front, rear and height at the same time, but cannot adjust the height independently. I can’t always find a position that works for me. I like to have the steering wheel very low so I can rest my hands on it, but the lower steering column in this car has to be achieved further forward. This way the steering wheel is too far away from me.
The adjustment method of the manual seat is not very convenient. The angle of the backrest is adjusted on the right side of the seat, so you need to move your right arm to the relatively crowded right side of the seat, where there is an armrest, instead of the relatively open left side of the seat. Driver’s side has more adjustment than the passenger side, lumbar support is also free on driver’s side. The Iranian diplomat who ordered Persian Kitty was very concerned about the vehicle’s safety, so he equipped with 682 fire extinguisher, 551 alarm system and 882 anti-theft and anti-trailer protection.
Let’s talk about drive, like a journalist. Turn the key, wait half min to let the idle lower, shift to Drive and push the pedal. For MY1998, a trapezoid screen is added onto the instrument cluster, to remind your next due oil change. The oil change interval in trapezoid screen is 15,000 km, and I don’t think I can reach this number before the oil goes bad. The odometer tells us he has over 140,000 km, but I believe it’s no different than new.
Acceleration performance is completely new to me. In the past 10 years, I have actually ignored the acceleration performance of the S 280. Before completing the engine restoration, I always thought that the S 280 was just “a little slower” than the S 320 because the difference in displacement was only 400 cc. Until I discovered that the Persian was incredibly slow, much slower than my 1998 S 320. Then I checked the factory data. For MY1998, the S 280 took 11.0 s from 0-100 km/h, while the S 320 with the standard wheelbase was 8.9 s, a difference of 2.1 s. what does that mean? The S 600 takes 6,6 s and is 2,3 s faster than the S 320, this difference is made possible by an additional 163 PS and 2800 cc. The S 280 only has 38 PS less than the S 320, but is 2,1 s slower. To be precise, the S 280 is slower than the A 160 and is almost the slowest petrol model in MY1998.
The 16-inch steel rims paired with 4 new Bilstein shock absorbers are already very good and are more comfortable than many modern cars with big wheels that use air springs. What’s the point to have big wheels? Just the steel wheels, the cheapest option requires the craziest cleaning, need constantly clearing brake powder away to avoid rust. If the hubcap is frequently disassembled and assembled, the black powder on the wheels will be scratched. As a cosmetic, I used factory springs and 10g balance weights on the outside of the rim, then rebalanced on the inside. This is not easy to do because the inside of the steel rim is very close to the brake caliper, and the balance weight will occupy 95% of the gap.
I picked up my hobby of photography again after the refining of the Persian Kitty was completed, and due to the reliability and affordability of the Persian Kitty we traveled to many places and this post is filled with photos of her. I especially love using his smooth sides as a mirror for sunset shots, and we’ve made a lot of progress together.
We kept making progress as we drove. I noticed a flaw in the spring, I smelled the tail odor. Persian Kitty, like most vehicles in developing regions, does not have a catalytic converter, which makes its exhaust a bit pungent. The weird thing is that I didn’t experience this problem last summer and winter, and it showed up this spring, opening the trunk was full of exhaust fumes. I took the rear bumper apart and inspected the breather panel and found that its rubber no longer seals. Here’s how it works: When I stop using the AC, a negative pressure develops in the car and sucks exhaust through the failed trunk vent panel, which doesn’t happen when I use the AC. I ordered new parts and after 25 years it is still made by TRW, problem solved.
Why didn’t I find out last fall? Oh, and we’re all locked down at home because of COVID. The lockdown lasted until December, when authorities suddenly announced an end to it because almost everyone was infected. While everyone was at home recuperating, I drove the Persian to the city center and took many photos – streets so empty may never be seen again. Interestingly, when I took out the Iranian flag, a cyclist next to me said “Wow, Iran”. He was the first to correctly identify the Iranian flag, probably because of the ongoing World Cup in Qatar. Most people would not realize that this flag belongs to a country or identify it as Italy. I found that many Iranians did not like the flag of the Islamic Republic, so I also made the Pahlavi flag.
In addition, I discovered an interesting phenomenon in the parking basement. Due to the large amount of space left by the inline 6-cylinder in the cabin, Persian Kitty have become multi-cat. Even though I always clean the engine, it always gets messed up by a cat or a weasel, and I’m now worried they’ll tear out the engine insulation that’s still intact.
In total, only 190 of the 140 were sold to Iran, not including hidden diplomatic sales. 88 of them have flagpoles, which means foreign diplomatic cars in Iran or Iranian diplomatic cars abroad. Even though Iran is literally “Aryan” and Iranians have a lot of enthusiasm for German cars, it was really difficult to enjoy a 140 in Iran in the 1990s unless you represented a country.
In fact, I can’t decide whether to drive Persian Kitty or not. Even driving the S 280 isn’t all that comfortable in crowded cities, a car designed to cruise on the highway rather than start and brake frequently. So I rarely embarrass us and we rarely drive in the city unless a special friend wants a ride. In particular, in this city full of EVs, EV drivers are very aggressive with better acceleration and braking, which makes us feel tired.
In my city, or any big city in China, the use of fuel vehicles is restricted, and imported fuel vehicles have more restrictions. This is to protect China’s EV industry and the expensive license plates in various cities. In my city, license plates used to be very expensive, so to differentiate it from plates in other cities, there was an exclusivity policy during high traffic times. During the five hours between 7:00-9:00 and 16:00-19:00, only cars in the city can drive. Other cars need special applications. Each application is valid for 7 days and can be applied 12 times a year.
I understand the policy and think 84 days is enough – I only drive in good weather in the spring and fall. But when I submitted the application, it was rejected by the police because my document only had the last 6 digits of the VIN. This was very common in China in the 1990s, DMV employees were too lazy to enter the full VIN, they often just entered the last 6 digits instead of the full 17 digits. Now my problem is if I submit the full 17 digit VIN the police tell me it doesn’t match their records because their records only have 6 digits. And if I submitted the 6 digits that matched the record, the police told me that what I entered was not a VIN because the VIN should have 17 digits. Even though the car was parked there, the police refused to look at it and approve it, and the DMV refused to change anything. Changing the VIN seemed like a constitutional change to them.
I complained to the government and got a quick response, “You are the first to raise this issue, but we will not do anything just for you. Your car is too old. Don’t drive such an old car all the time.” See? In this city of 15 million people, I am the only one still driving a car from the 1990s. Am I angry? Sure, I paid adequate taxes, but I could never pick up my sons from kindergarten. Will I resist? Silently, I kept applying, and kept getting rejected. It was not until the end of last September that my application was approved, after 14 months of application. Maybe the police got really tired of such an applicant, maybe I got noticed by breaking my rejection record. Maybe it’s just that God saw it all and decided to grant my wish to pick up my sons once they start kindergarten in September.
My 3 year old sons love Persian Kitty. Not out of love for classic cars, they have no idea what Persian Kitty means, and as I said, he’s not fundamentally different from the latest cars. They just know that I cherish my 140 so much that I clean the car and put on a coat after every drive, and sitting in this car is an absolute preferential treatment. So when they see a brightly lit Persian Kitty in the parking lot after school, they yell “Take off shoes!” with joy and jump to their feet. It was our agreement to take off our shoes, I didn’t want to get the velvet dirty, and they agreed. Have to say they almost destroyed my Tesla rear seatback, but any of my 140 is precious to them.
The bright lights are another reason for their love for the car. In the northern hemisphere winter, it’s already dark when school ends. If you turn on all the lights in the back row, there are 5 lights in total, it will be very warm whether you look from the outside or sit inside. They have a warm color temperature. In contrast, today’s cars are just cold LEDs, and many cannot even provide adequate lighting.
It’s interesting to have the S 280 as an ambassador car because there isn’t much legroom in the back. On the Ethiopian Ambassador’s 1997 S 280 in Beijing, the right front seat head rest was removed, apparently the car was being used as a 3-seater. Unless you move the right front seat forward, the car is very tight on legroom and even difficult to get in and out of for adult man. You could say that the Iranian diplomatic establishment probably didn’t have enough budget and they chose the cheapest S class with the fewest options. However this works for my kids, for whom virtually any car would be roomy, putting them in the long wheelbase of the open space would worry me about them escaping from the seats.
I think the day I found the car, two years before the acquisition, I immediately forwarded it to my only Persian connection: Ali. Ali is a Persian automotive engineer living in Germany. He is very passionate about cars. In fact we got to know each other because of 140. I thought it would be cool for us to fly Persian Kitty together, but COVID lockdown pushed that plan back a long way. Until last Christmas, Ali came to my city to experience the feeling of returning to his motherland – he had not been back there for a long time. We also picked up my kids together. It was an unforgettable day and you couldn’t find a better reason to fly the Iranian flag than to be with a truely Persian.
Even with restricted use most of the time in the past, I did drive Persian Kitty. By the end of last year, we had driven 4185 km in 14 months and made the first oil change. Since I own a lot of cars, this number is staggering, it’s several times the mileage of the other 140 combined. The good news is that we did not consume too much fuel because the fuel economy is amazing. Every time I refuel I will calculate the average fuel consumption and it is almost always below 12 l/100 km. When taking him on the highway for a long time it will be below 11 l/100 km, which is even lower than my dad’s 2017 S 320.
If you know me, you know that I daily a Tesla Model X and subway. I can say that without the navigation system, this 1998 car has no significant disadvantages over the Tesla. After all, Tesla’s navigation is not as easy to use as the iPhone. If I needed a cell phone, I would put it in a 30-year-old car instead of buying a new car with a cell phone mounted on it, or a giant phone on wheels. The 140 is just the right kind of car that still meets the basic needs of driving today.
Even, Persian Kitty has an advantage. Once I came home, there was a 3-4 year old child and his guardian in front of me and Persian Kitty, and we move towards each other. The low beam was still too high for a 1-meter-tall child. I suddenly realized that the light was hurting his vision, so I immediately turned the knob under the steering column with my left hand to turn off the light. I’m glad I drove Persian Kitty and did this, if I were driving a Tesla I would have to look and tap the screen several times and by then it would be too late.