Background
The story goes that Mercedes engineers used to build the best car they could, then tell the accounts department how much it had cost. At some point early this century this changed. Now the accounts department decide how much money they can spend, and the engineers build a car to that price. This equates to more profits, but inferior products. The C140 CL 500 therefore ranks as the last of the big S Class coupés built to the very highest of standards. In fact it’s arguably the best S Class coupé there ever was.
Introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1991, the third-generation S Class was penned by Olivier Boulay and Bruno Sacco, who claimed they’d been influenced by the Jag XJ40 and E32-generation BMW 7 Series. These competitors forced Mercedes to delay the W140 by roughly 18 months to give them time for an engine bay rework so the car could accommodate a V12 engine, like the Jag and the BMW. Did it need one? Well, not from an engineering standpoint, no.
This delay and the subsequent cost overruns resulted in the departure of chief engineer Wolfgang Peter, who was unhappy at the shift in emphasis from an engineer led development programme to one steered by the marketing department. Mercedes at the time was exploring both a W18 and a V16 engine, further explaining Peter’s frustration with the W140’s V12.
The final development prototypes were completed in June 1990, and those added costs meant the W140 had a considerably higher starting price compared with the preceding W126 S Class, gifting Toyota’s Lexus division a considerable price advantage with its LS competitor.
From 1991 through to 1998 W140 production totalled 432,732, of which 26,022 were coupés. Back when this generation was brand-spanking new, Mercedes offered a total of five powerplants, the best, in our view being the 5-litre V8.
The C140 came fully loaded with creature comforts and driver aids, including double glazed windows, speed-sensitive steering, guide rods that extended from the rear corners of the boot lid to provide the driver with a guideline for rear parking manoeuvres, heated wiper fluid, rain-sensing wipers, an auto-dimming driver’s side mirror and soft-closing doors. This generation of the S Class was also the first production vehicle to feature a CAN-based multiplex wiring system, something that modern car buyers take for granted.
The C140 coupé and its saloon counterpart was replaced in 1998 by the W220 series, which is a Mercedes designed by a team led by bean counters rather than engineers.
