My memory could be wrong, but I can’t think of any big manufacturers that had made any ‘one hit wonder’ models in recent history. For example, the Porsche 911 Turbo was a hit for many generations before being replaced by the GT3RS as the company’s poster child, Ferrari’s V8 line up was always popular, and similarly, Lamborghini’s V12 models have always been a hit. It would appear that big manufacturers, once they find a good equation to build a popular model, it would normally last a few generations before it becomes outdated or ‘untrendy’. The exception, however, would be the car I am reviewing today, the Mercedes-Benz SEC – the first and most successful S-class coupe by the brand.
Produced as the first ever two-door version of the wildly iconic S-class, the Mercedes-Benz ‘SEC’, or ‘C126’, was an instant hit. This was partly due to its timing – being born in the colourful 80’s that was defined by excess and consumerism, the market was hungry for expensive, luxurious, and sizeable cars for boomers to flaunt their relatively easy-to-come-by wealth. Grand tourers were therefore the flavour of the month and Mercedes at the time didn’t really have one, hence the SEC was a timely introduction to the Mercedes flagship lineup. The beautiful design by Bruno Sacco was of course another huge contributing factor to the model’s success. Keeping the robustness of the Mercedes-Benz design language at the time, Sacco was still able to create a streamlined and perfectly proportionate model instantly recognizable even today. No, it was not a Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborghini Countach nor a Porsche 930 Turbo, but it was a heavy hitter of the 80’s in its own right. For the flashy businessmen, bankers, or lawyers who were not into super cars or, perhaps, unable to drive a manual car, the SEC was the natural choice. The car was popular and iconic throughout the 80’s – like the Ferrari Testarossa, it too was frequently featured in the hit TV show, Miami Vice, the undisputed authority of what was cool and what was not in the 80’s.
The SEC was produced between 1981 to 1991, with a facelift in 1986. At the time of introduction, Mercedes-Benz introduced a new fuel injection system, which was the inspiration of the model’s name. SEC is short form for “Sonderklass Einspritzmotor Coupe” which translates to “special class injection engine”. The car only ever came in V8 engines, with the entry model being the 380SEC, then the 500SEC, and the top-of-the-line 560SEC. The car today is the mid-level 500SEC, and as the name suggests, it has a five-litre V8 engine producing about 260HP, 50HP short from the 300HP 560SEC.
Like most Mercedes, the SEC was mass produced, with around 30,000 units produced for each of the 500SEC and 560SEC models. However, as time have passed, many have been crashed or scrapped or rusted away over the years, so they are not nearly as plentiful as they were 40 years ago. To find one in the condition of the one I am reviewing today is not a given, and the fact that this car has the AMG body kit and the unicorn-status AMG wheels make it a pretty rare car, especially in Singapore. The owner bought this pre-facelift 1983 model from the UK in 2018 and put it through a restoration – with a repaint from white to black, refurbed engine parts (including zinc-plating), interior uplift, and the all-important AMG body kit and wheels. The owner admitted that the body kit is not original AMG, but a remade product by a Polish company. I never knew there were reproduction AMG body kits for these 80’s/90’s Mercedes, and I think it is a great thing there are companies out there that do that. The wheels, however, do not have reproduction brands and the owner had to fork out a hefty US$7,000 to buy it on eBay!
Stepping into the car and closing the door, immediately you are taken back in time with the auto seatbelt extension mechanism where, to prevent you from needing to twist your body all the way back to grab the seatbelt, a robot arm brings the seatbelt to you automatically. Cool function, but I remember back in period passengers who did not know better would always be in a hurry to pull the seatbelt before it was properly extended and thereby breaking the robot arm! Absorbing the atmosphere of the interior, you can tell the attention to detail the owner had when restoring this car. In-period Lorinser steering wheel is a nice touch, but my personal favorite is always a period-correct radio head unit, which this car has with a beautiful Blaupunkt unit standing proudly in the centre console.
Starting the car, there is a calm and slightly muted roar from the V8 engine as this is, at the end of the day, a Mercedes and not a Ferrari. The gearshift from Park to Drive feels just like all the Mercedes from this period, but the handbrake is distinctively from an older era – where you have to pull it out from where it sits on the right hand side of the steering wheel (for RHD cars), twist the handle, and then push it back into the dashboard before the handbrake is properly released. Setting off, the one surprise I have is how relatively soft the brake and gas pedals are. I have had my fair share of 80’s and 90’s Mercedes-Benz back in the 2010’s, from A124, to R129’s, and yes, not one but two C126’s; and one common feature amongst them is the hard brake and gas pedals. But such is not the case in this one, for whatever reason.
It is not easy to find twisty roads in Singapore and today is no exception – the rain also does not help. As such, I am unable to try out how the car handles. However, as mentioned, about 15 years ago I did have two SEC’s – both a 500 and a 560. Both were unrestored and, frankly, a little shabby at the time. However, I remember fondly that they both handled exceptionally well when I drove them in Shek O. It came as a total surprise how balanced the cars were. Of course, being big grand tourers with less than 300HP, they were never going to be used as time attack vehicles, but they handled themselves very well in the narrow twisty roads of Hong Kong back then. There is no reason to doubt that the car I am reviewing today should be any different, given the right roads. On the straights, as a Mercedes grand tour of the era, the power does not come in an explosive manner, but more linear. Although it only has 260HP, being a V8 and weighing only 1,600KG (light for today’s standards), you can feel the abundance of power starting from 2,500RPM onwards, perfect for highway cruising. It is such a joy to be back behind the wheel of one of these magnificent cars after so many years.
Going back to my point about the car being a ‘one hit wonder’ at the beginning of this review, the SEC’s success was simply not replicated after production ended in 1991. Its replacement, the C140, being the two-door version of the extremely successful and instant classic W140 S-Class, was not nearly as successful nor, in my opinion, as pretty as the SEC. In fact, I think the C140 – then renamed as the ‘CL’ model instead of ‘SEC’ – is rather ugly, despite I am a huge fan of its four-door brother (I again, have two of them). The CL models that came after that became even more irrelevant to the luxury market. Also, by the time of the later models, Mercedes was no longer known for ‘overengineering’ their cars, and a lot of the CL models with their big engines and vast electronic technologies were not very reliable nor cheap to maintain. As a result, their values tanked almost immediately after hitting the ground and many were scrapped at way too young an age. This isn’t a bad thing for the SEC, however, as it will forever be the first and only two-door S-Class that is admired by all and a firm resident of the Mercedes-Benz hall of fame.
As always, I thank the owner for his generosity of lending me his car and my wife, Mrs. InstacarHK, for being the camerawoman for this review.
See the review video here: