Henry Magno

Ben, I am mistaken about another molding, I apologize. It's the pin striping that confused me.

Bennie, Your car was restored under the ownership of Dr. Mahmood (Mike) Mirkhani of Cheshire CT. I saw the car in the late 70's after I had purchased my own 320 Cab A. It was a very good restoration as I remember, at the time. I don't remember any details about when he purchased it or from whom. Here is his obituary from 2005 https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Dr-Mahmood-Mirkhani-77-father-of-local-man-238799.php You might want to look up one of his children, they might have some information. I noticed that at the time of the repaint to red, an additional molding was added along the belt line aft of the windshield. I'm not sure why that was done as it doesn't really add anything to an already good looking body style. As for the treatment of the hood vents, I have never seen another 320 like this. Alsancle can you remember any others specifically?

I would agree, those prices were very good considering the quality of those cars was not great, to put it mildly.

The first really easy tip off is the fender beading. If it looks flat and wide, it's because they made it out of a separate strip of metal on the replicas. On the factory bodies, the bead is narrower and has more crown. It was rolled in. The next tip is the false molding across the top of the door. The height of this changes too much as it gets to the rear of the door such that it appears close to the top of the hinge. On an original, their is more room between the molding and the hinge. Also this door top was constructed out of separate pieces of sheet, and like the fender bead, is too flat. There are other things like the shape of the rear deck, the contours are oversimplified.

Absolutely sure, Same BS story they gave last auction write up. Well I suppose that the story may have fit this chassis, but there is no evidence that it was built as a Cab A. This is the car I first saw at the Amelia show. Even Bonhams put a weakly worded disclaimer on at for their Amelia auction 2016, after I gave them my input on it. This car was in another auction this year, can't remember which one.

It's 320 replica time again. The blue 320 CA is up for auction in Scottsdale at Worldwide Auctions http://www.worldwide-auctioneers.com/auctions/details.cfm?vehicleID=6&id=61. No mention of the re-body.

Is there a reason we could not be a bit more transparent on this forum as to our identities? As I'm sure most of you know, we can fill in a signature pane that appears at the bottom of each post with any amount of information we choose. I understand that many may not want their full contact information here, but how about a full name and maybe the city and country where we live, and possibly what cars we own relevant to this topic. As long as we are talking about serial numbers, lists of cars etc., what with the numbers of replicas, body swaps etc. and other questionable business out there, we should have confidence that what we discuss here is out in the open with people we know the identities of. Buickliner, as for your comments on knowledge of history, I think most of us are familiar with the geopolitics of the postwar period, and, in particular, most Mercedes pre-war car enthusiasts know that cars were shipped to the Soviet Union after the war. This is the first I've heard of these lists and counts you have and I would hope, also in the interest of transparency, you might make this information available.

Ugh, why would anyone try to restore this mongrel? A good parts car maybe.

The 170 V Cab A I restored over 20 years ago is up for sale at RM Amelia Island. I haven't seen it since I sold it in 2006. It's being sold no reserve, price range $ 130-160 which I think is a little low, but I am biased of course. I do know that to restore it now, the cost would be multiples of that price. I heard that Jamie Wyeth wasn't using it much so he decided to sell it. He owns two other cars I restored, a 1952 170 Sb Sedan and a 1950 170 S Cab B. Personally I would have kept the 170V and sold one of these. I'm not going to Amelia this year, might have gone to see the car sold off, but I didn't know it was being auctioned until the other day. If anyone is going I'd be interested in hearing how it is looking these days.

The eBay replica is built on an ML320 chassis, the modern SUV, the one MB started making in 1998. not a pre-war 320.

The only one I wasn't too sure of was the 290 Cab A short, dark blue and light blue. But if you compare the fenders to a factory picture, from the crown to the running board is a straight line as is the line of the running board itself. In the factory pictures the fender and running board make a continuous curve. I've noticed on the Almar 320 LWB Cab A's , which now number at least 5-6 cars, the curve of the running board was not executed well, but on these cars, many other things stand out as well making then very easy to identify, the too-wide and too flat fender beading and the too flat features at the top of the doors, as well as very sharp corners where the metal was pieced together instead of being pressed or rolled shapes.

Great pictures. Thanks. I notice that every two seat 290 or 320 appears to be a replica body. Interesting to see the Almar stand, since they are the ones building a lot of the replica bodies. Did you happen to notice whether any of these cars are represented as replicas?

I noticed that the blue replica body 320 Cab A that I saw in the Amelia show last year is up for sale by Bonhams at Amelia next week.http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23133/lot/172/ I just spoke to one of their people about it. It will be interesting to see what they do. Nothing mentioned in the description that it is a fake. We discussed the SWB "Cab A" that was in the Bonhams, Denmark auction last fall that was really a copy of a Combination Coupe. The Bonhams rep indicated that it was represented as a "reconstruction". I would take issue that the description indicated as much. Here is the link for a lesson in auction copy creative writing: http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23234/lot/3/ I know this is not so interesting to those of you following the supercharged cars, but I'm just trying to get the truth out.

I think the red 320 CA short may be a car my friend Shane Houlihan in Ireland restored. Thiesen had it for sale a while back. It since got whitewalls and extra spotlights.

AJ I did comment on the short wheelbase car earlier: "So I notice with interest this so called "320N Cab A" at the upcoming Bonhams Frederiksen auction. Firstly it's misidentified as a Cab A when it's really configured as a Combination Coupe. SInce the Combi Coupe is extremely rare, last I knew only three existing, mine, the museum car, and a third car from Lithuania I believe, I'm surprised that, if the auction car is real, why it wouldn't be identified as a combination coupe. I met the owner of the Lithuania car in my shop some years ago. His car did not have a hardtop and we discussed copying mine for his car. I have a few pictures of this car and I believe it was real, since it was too rough to be fake. But it was intact enough to see that it was a real car, not just a pile of parts. I did hear that possibly a copy or copies of this car were being made. Interesting that it says this car was restored in Lithuania.