I had one of those Mercs for a short while, it belonged to the late Michelle Roux senior, a very well known chef and wordwide ambassador for the very famous Waterside Inn, which he started in the 60's/70's. I recovered it from deepest France with a duff auto box, and brought it back here to my home, Mercedes wanted a fortune to fix it, the local autobox man (an old school chum of mine) about a third of that, still too dear, so he gave me the car, it had a full tank of petrol, tax and long MOT, I bought a used box from a breaker, they are fairly generic on Mercs, paid said pal to fit it, got it sorted, and drove it until the petrol in the red, loved every mile of it, then registered it as mine (cancels the tax) and sold it, i thought I was going to be making thousands, but in the end a very hard car to sell (thirstsy and sky high insurance) and I only made a miserly few, not realy worth the effort, he did pay me for all expenses to recover the car though and a voucher for a free meal for two at the resto, so it wasnt bad, I took my hairdresser, young enough to be my daughter, for that meal out, and she now holds the records at that establishment for the shortest dress ever seen in the place, not realy aproprate atire for such an establishment, oit was not only very short Mary Quant style, but also very loud/bright in colour, I was suited and booted, three piece no less and a tie!) but she looked drop dead gorgous so who cares! certainly the resto didnt and that is a sign of the very highest quality.
CLEM
ps Waterside in has had three Michelin stars for the longest time of all restaurants, about 28 years or something, maybe longer.
There are only five three starred resto's in the UK.Two of them 800 yards apart.