Mercedes-Benz -/8 commander vehicle "Bundeswehr", olive green, 1:87

ABOUT MERCEDES-BENZ -/8

The Mercedes-Benz W114 and W115 were the internal designation Mercedes-Benz used for a generation of front-engine, rear-drive, five-passenger sedans and coupés introduced in 1968, with three-box styling by Paul Bracq. The Mercedes-Benz /8 was introduced in 1968 and was the successor of the legendary Mercedes-Benz Fintail. Over the course of its career, its outstanding qualities meant that it shaped a whole generation of automobiles. Today it is an established classic.

Production of the pre-series models, however, began back in the Fall of 1967. All in all, some 1.9 million models of the Stroke 8 were built. When the successor model series, the W 123, was launched in January 1976, Daimler-Benz kept the production lines running until December 1976, so allowing the two-model series to be produced in parallel for almost a year.

Particularly coveted by today’s collectors are the Stroke 8 Coupes – the first coupes in the upper mid-range to be built by Mercedes-Benz. 

The W114/W115 models were the first post-war Mercedes-Benz production car to use a newly engineered suspension, not derived from preceding models. The new format of semi-trailing rear arms and ball-joint front end first displayed in the W114/W115 would be used in all new Mercedes passenger car models until the development of the multi-link rear suspensions of the 1980s.As a 200-series model, the vehicle produced 95 PS and reached a top speed of up to 165 km/h. Many /8 vehicles were also procured by the German Army during the course of their construction period, when they were mainly used as commander vehicles for division commanders.