{"id":2020491,"date":"2026-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2020491"},"modified":"2026-07-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:00:00","slug":"flying-halfway-around-the-world-to-look-at-a-gorgeous-old-mercedes-560sel-amg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2020491","title":{"rendered":"Flying halfway around the world… to look at a gorgeous old Mercedes 560SEL AMG"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Renowned photographer Mark has been working with Top Gear for many, many years. When not taking photos he\u2019s buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world<\/em><\/p>\n

In recent years I\u2019ve adopted the awful habit of not viewing cars before actually buying them. And this has \u2013 for the most part \u2013 always ended up exactly as you\u2019d expect it; with cars arriving in far worse condition than described and in one case not actually turning up at all (followed by the seller disappearing after).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Clearly this approach to buying anything is foolish, let alone a car, and I can\u2019t really justify it other than being impatient or a car being so cheap it\u2019s worth a punt even if it turns out to be crap. The fact I sold off four cars last year (all of which were cars I bought unseen) likely speaks volumes for how well this approach pans out in the long run.<\/p>\n

For 2026 it\u2019s a new year and a new me. Or, at the very least, a slightly more sensible approach to buying cars in the form of actually looking at them. The only issue with this is I\u2019m immediately drawn to weird stuff, and it\u2019s usually a miracle if said cars are even within Europe. Which is why I\u2019m currently sat on a plane bound for Tokyo some 9,000 miles away to go and look at an old Mercedes for sale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Admittedly this isn\u2019t any old Benz; this particular car is a W126 560SEL AMG \u2013 the epitome of a blacked out, VIP-spec \u201980s uber saloon littered with AMG upgrades from the aero to the exhaust and interior. Now it doesn\u2019t have the 6.0-litre DOHC V8 fitted; those engines command the price of a decent house in 2026. But it does have the perfect combo of what made these pre-merger AMG cars so damn cool; blue-black exterior paint, black leather interior and all of the chrome detailing painted body colour.<\/p>\n

It might sound just as daft flying halfway around the world to look at a car as it does buying one unseen, but thankfully I do have some work to do in Japan to try and justify the trip, albeit with a day tacked on to view this particular 1989 SEL located on the outskirts of Tokyo. It\u2019s not on a whim, either. For years and years I\u2019ve been trying to build this exact style of car and failing no fewer than three times using a 500SEL Brabus, 560SEL Brabus and 560SEL Carat in the process. The problem is decent W126 560SELs are now becoming very rare, let alone those with all the AMG upgrades. So when the opportunity arises to buy one that needs no work doing and has all the right paperwork, it\u2019s well worth pursuing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For years and years I\u2019ve been trying to build this exact style of car<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This particular car is currently owned by a French man living in Japan by the name of Stan. That might sound like the start of a good joke, but much like my own obsession for this era of Benz, Stan also found himself in a similar dilemma several years back when it came up for sale in Japan. It was more money than he wanted to spend, but it\u2019d been extensively restored and was a left-hand-drive model originally sold in Japan back in 1989. More importantly, it had the correctly sized AMG Aero 3 wheels and the AMG Japan Version 2 aero \u2013 arguably the best looking bodykit for this era of Benz.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m massively biased, but it\u2019s a car I\u2019ve obsessed over for years, and rarely do I get so giddy that I actually need to behave like an adult so not to just give Stan a deposit and pray for the best. But let\u2019s be honest, short of it being two cars welded together and covered in rust we already know what the result is going to be…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renowned photographer Mark has been working with Top Gear for many, many years. When not taking photos he\u2019s buying inappropriate cars. Here he shares his addiction with the world In recent years I\u2019ve adopted the awful habit of not viewing cars before actually buying them. And this has \u2013 for the most part \u2013 always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2020491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2020491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2020491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2020491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2020491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}