The Blau Coupe: 1968 Mercedes-Benz 280SE

Sitting in the car is just such a luxurious environment and gliding along, looking at that dashboard in front of you and beyond the dashboard, looking through the windscreen with the Mercedes emblem right there and guiding you as you drive along is just amazing. It's almost ambassadorial. It's just beautiful. My name is Jayesh Patel and I drive a Mercedes-Benz 280 SE Coupe 3.5 V8 and it's a right-hand drive pre-production model. So I was born in Nairobi, Kenya and my family had businesses established in Kenya in the photo processing business. Growing up in Kenya was fantastic. It was very much an outdoor life. We just played outdoors all the time, cycling and things like that. And one of the great things in Kenya is rally driving. So rallying is a major sport in Kenya and my uncle was a rally driver. So we followed him all the time. I remember my aunt picking me up from school when I was about seven in his rally car. Can you imagine that, being picked up at school in a rally car? So that influenced a lot of my love for cars. So the Mercedes 280 that I have today, it all started with a passion for this car from my father actually. He was a Mercedes man. I've always wanted a 280 SE Coupe. I just think the shape is so fantastic. I remember my father had a Mercedes Fintail in the same colour as this car with a white steering wheel. And I've got pictures of my sister and I in that car. I remember we used to fight over who could be in the driving seat and play with that huge steering wheel. A white, beautiful white, large, oversized steering wheel. And that's what I grew up with. When I was looking, I ended up buying a 300 SE Coupe, which I completely loved. But it wasn't an original car. And I always had it in the back of my mind that I like that car so much, I must have an original. And so the search never stopped really. And five years later, I found this car on the internet and I had to buy it. So this car was an amazing find because searching one night on the internet and I came across this 280 SE 3.5 Coupe pre-production model. And initially, I didn't think it could be true. How can a pre-production model be available for sale? It should be in a museum. So I inquired more, made the phone calls to the dealer and went up there and had a look at the paperwork. And I mean, the paperwork is unbelievable. It's probably the most detailed history file of a car I have ever seen. And going through that, it was still in the back of your mind, you think, can it really be a pre-production model? So my friends at the Mercedes-Benz Club UK, I asked them to check out the history of this car. And they contacted their contacts in Stuttgart, Germany. And a chap in the archives department found details of my car in their records and confirmed that, yeah, it's a pre-production model. So this car was ordered by the experimental division of Mercedes-Benz, Daimler-Benz back then. And it was specifically ordered for the facelift styling, so the lower grille and the new style bonnet and of course the 3.5 V8 engine. So this is the first car that had the M16 3.5 V8 engine put into it, which Mercedes-Benz then used for a couple of decades in all of their S-Class models. So a very historically significant car. I think that the city of London is where this car should be. It belongs there. It spent most of its life in SE1. It's so beautiful from every angle. But if I had to choose, I mean, I love the headlights, the stacked headlights. I love the rear windscreen, the way it's shaped. The rear quarter, actually, I particularly like very much. The way the light falls on the car and bounces off the car. The way buildings and the surrounding reflect on the car. It's just fantastic. My wife sees the car as a rival. So there is a shared love for my wife and the car. But no, in all seriousness, I mean, she absolutely loves it. She's into design and she loves the shape of the car. She loves the feel and drive of the car. And she drives it on a regular basis as well. It is a favourite of both of us. When you start the car and you fire up that V8 engine, there is a purr that you can hear inside the car. And it's quiet, but it's there. And that's when you know that you are in a powerful, well-built German machine. The proper clunk of the door, the white oversized steering wheel, the comfortable, luxurious seats, the simplistic dashboard, but that's ever so luxurious. What's not to love about this car? It's just absolutely fantastic from every point.