W114 designed by French car designer Paul Bracq who worked with Mercedes-Benz from 1957 to 1967 - The W114 has a design based on its predecessor, the W108 and W108 S-Class which were launched in 1965. Bracq began designing cars under the BMW and Peugeot brands after some time with Mercedes-Benz.
"/8" in the name is the designation for all models of the W114 and W115 series. When read in German as "Strich Acht", it signifies the start of the production of the model, which is the year 1968. The biggest innovation in this car is the rear suspension, which is based on inclined arms, breaking with the relic in the form of a swing axle, providing better stability during fast driving and braking. As they say, there's no ride without a star. It brings joy, not just behind the wheel. It evokes sentiment on every road, and everyone remembers it. The only difference is that in Poland, only diesels used to reign, while here there's a proud six-cylinder and two Zenith carburetors, meaning it is the W114 model.
My Mercedes 230 /8 is a representative of the first series (1.5), in a dark olive color (291H). It has undergone renovation works that included all elements of the car, both visually and mechanically. The restoration took 8 months. I call it Fenix (Phoenix)
because it rose from the ashes (read: rust) that almost finished Mr. Sławek, who was in charge of the restoration. It's just like new. It's beautiful!!!
It happens that we are asked where the name "Strichacht (/8)" actually comes from. In addition, it also happens that we have problems with assigning the W114 or W115 designations to a specific model.
We'll try to explain it a bit here. The designation "/8" refers to the release date of the model: 1968. This was to distinguish the new "/8" model from previous models that bore partly identical designations, e.g. to distinguish the 200D/8 from the 200D Heckflosse.
The "/8" designation appeared only on paper, never as a designation (signboard) on the car...
The explanation of the /8 model designation principle is also simple: all cars with six-cylinder units, regardless of whether they are limousines or coupes, are designated as the W114 series; all cars with four- and five-cylinder units - W115 series.
It was probably planned, as was the case with Heckflosse , to produce two types of cars in parallel, with a slightly different body for four- or six-cylinder models. These intentions were not implemented, but both type series designations remained ...
Certainly, the series markings have nothing to do with the series, years of production of the /8 model or bodies (limousine / coupe), as is often assumed.
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