Mercedes-Benz W126 560SEC

As I crossed the road today, for whatever reason, I took note of the black 4x4 idling on the side of the street. I noticed that in the driver's seat was Bernie Ecclestone. I waved. He waved back. I carried on walking.

Seeing Bernie didn't really surprise me. But seeing him in a Lexus RX450h, the hybrid one, did. Mr Ecclestone, legend has it, has one of the great car collections and periodically he auctions a few off. I'm not sure if his divorce is hitting him in the pocket but for him to be in one of these 'Lexi', made me think: 'Surely he'd much prefer a full on RR Vogue or a big GL-Class?' Anyway, I did keep on wondering what sort of cars he would have had. Like The Times described, "...when your total wealth is greater than the gross national product of a fairly large African country...", he could afford anything he wanted.

So, roll back twenty years. You're a billionaire. You like tootling around town. What car for you? What was the ultimate big-time status symbol car?

Probably the 560 SEC.

The 5.5 litre V8, the M117 V8 was the same engine first implemnted in the original AMG war-machine, the W124 'Hammer' and the Sauber Group C racers. Used in this format, turned the leviathan, luxury coupe into one of the fastest cars of it's day. with dollops of torque available all the way down at 2000 rpm (405 lb ft@3000rpm).

Nigh on £72,000 when new, with just over 28,000 made in a 6 year period, they were the CL63 AMG of their day. Whilst Bruno Sach's pillarless coupe was a favourite of German tuners in the late 80's, Mercedes at the time owned the market for large, four-seat, powerful wafters.