18917, Author at The Mercedes-Benz Club

I have been a club member for over 25 years. My first encounter with a Mercedes Benz was in the 1960's when my father purchased a Fintail 220SE. As a young child I got to sit up front besides Dad, probably on the centre arm rest, and admire the exotic colour changing speedometer listening to the smooth 6-cylinder engine. Those were different times, Mercedes’ were exotic, foreign and the Fintail made a big impression on me. Subsequently my father owned a W115 followed by a brand new W126. I always admired the R107 and in 1996 I bought a 1978 vintage 350SL. I soon realised it needed lots of bodywork and even the parts that looked good were full of fiberglass and filler. Not daunted I went to see a man called John Bilias who had featured in a classic car magazine a few years earlier surrounded by Mercedes. He agreed to do some body work and I left the car there. I went back a couple of weeks later eager to see the progress only to find it parked in a large puddle of water untouched since I left it. John Bilias was snowed under, so I stuck around and helped out. He must have been impressed or desperate because he gave me a job and eventually, we cleared space in the workshop to get my car in. What followed was an extensive rebuild of my R107 which took some years. I worked for John for several years and we became good friends. During my time at the workshop at 123 Nutty Lane Shepperton, I learned a great deal about all Mercedes models from the 1950's to 1990's. It was a dream job for a Mercedes enthusiast, and I worked on many cars and drove most models to Mot or for delivery. Favourites have to be the W113, and the W109 6.3 as well as the R107's. Today I own a number of project Mercedes, I still have the R107, but also have a 3 W123's and a R230 as well as a Hybrid W212. I also inherited my father's W126 which unfortunately suffered fire damage to the rear in Cyprus. I am currently trying to rescue it. My full-time job at present is running Leslie Castle in Scotland (Leslie-Castle.com) which I own. The Baronial castle is run as a small private hotel from April to the beginning of October. Fellow Club Members can receive a discount (using code MBC20) when they stay with us and a free bottle of wine if they arrive in a pre 1995 Mercedes.

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