[Roadsters] Ken Flecher's 1969

[Ronnie Day]

>> Mike
>
>> In addition to my Datsun Roadster, I also own a '69 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL
>> (Pagoda) which I also love - but differently. B A pretty expensive car
that
>> looses "value" quickly when modified. A local Pagoda owner has wire wheels
on
>> his car - not what I would do to an old classic Pagoda, but so what. B When
he
>> is accosted by purists (which he regularly is) he just reminds them that
"the
>> title is in the dash - I can do what I like" B It is the perfect answer.
>>
>
> Couldn't agree more, Mike. Whatever a person wants to do with his/her
> car is their business. I enjoy our cars and I'm far from a purist, but
> if someone wants to keep their car bone stock that's fine. From my POV
> neither a stock Roadster or a 510 is that great, although the
> Roadster's more fun to drive in stock condition (provided it's in good
> shape) than an OEM 510. And do you really want to drive B a Roadster on
> the OEM bias ply tires? That's what they came with.
>
> Our stock '05 Accord is (objectively) a better car that a stock 510,
> but even our first 510 wasn't actually stock. The dealer had put a set
> of Michelins on it along with dual exhaust (I have no idea why!). When
> I was transferred to Hawaii in '73, I went through El Segundo and
> bought a suspension kit from Brock. By the time we moved back to San
> Antonio 3 years later I modified it quite a bit. The two 510s we
> currently have will be far from stock when they're back on the road.
>
> The '70 2000 I have now is fairly original, but if I was going to keep
> it, I'd probably do an SR swap, as much due to cost of rebuilding the
> U-20 drive train as anything else. Fact is, physical problems have
> made it very difficult for me to get in and out of the Roadster these
> days so it'll go on the market when I get back from NAB in Vegas in a
> couple of weeks.
>
> It's about what a person wants, IMHO,
> Ron