Occasional Observations

One thing that's really noticeable about driving a 20-plus-year-old car is how automatic gearshifts have advanced. The 280SL boasted a four-speed automatic, pretty advanced for '84, but by modern standards, not so responsive.

Step on the gas when the straight six is spinning at less than 3500 rpm in any gear and you get what we named "Flounder" mode. For a more brisk pace the only answer is to manually shift down, as the 'box wouldn't kick down from S to the higher of the two L gears.

So we named these gears:

Oberflounder

Mittelflounder

Niederflounder

After that, the standard comment on a lack of grunt-on-demand was: "Oh, you must be in Mittel...." etc.

Labels: Alpentour, auto, oldtimer, petrolhead