South Korea's S-class clone has retro appeal
Mercedes W 140 S320 (1991 to 1999)
Engine: 3199cc, inline DOHC six cylinder producing 170kw at 5600rpm and 315Nm
of torque at 3750rpm.
Gearbox: 5 speed automatic.
0 to 100km/h 8.2 seconds
Length: 5113mm; Width: 1886mm; Height: 1497mm; Wheelbase 3040mm Kerb weight:
1890kg.
Ssangyong Chairman CM600S (2005 model)
Engine: 3199cc, inline DOHC six cylinder producing 162kw and 310 Nm of
torque.
Gearbox: 5 speed automatic.
Length: 5135mm; Wheelbase: 2900mm; Kerb weight: 1810kw.
By David Ellery
This may sound perverse given my lifelong love affair with Mercedes Benz but
I would dearly love to get my hands on a Ssangyong Chairman.
As one who has always been drawn to the slightly offbeat and surreal (after
all, who else do you know that hard a Lloyd Hartnett and a Prince Gloria as
their first and third cars respectively) I am a sucker for what I would describe
as post-modernist car designs where something quite familiar and highly regarded
in its own right is reinvented with a left-field twist.
My Gloria, the Datsun 240C and 240Ks and the early Toyota Crowns and
Cressidas easily qualified given that they were Japanese interpretations of
quality European designs.
The difference between those cars and the South Korean Chairman however is
that it clones German engineering rather than just drawing inspiration from
it.
In the 1990s Ssangyong worked closely with Mercedes Benz, using the Stuttgart
designed 3.2 litre straight six in its Musso 4WD under licence. MB designed
gearboxes and a diesel engine were also built in South Korea.
The build quality was such, despite the sledging that was directed at South
Korea's motor industry at the time, that Mercedes Benz was happy to sell the
Musso in its dealerships around the world until the advent of the M-Class (which
lacked the off-road ability of the Korean wagon).
Bruce Newton, in a May 10, 2005, review of the Ssangyong on the Drive
Website, claims the Ssangyong's underpinnings are a stretched version of that
excellent thing, the W124 E-class that was sold between 1984 and 1995 and did
much to redefine the world luxury car market.
I'm not entirely convinced this is the case given the 3.2 litre verson of the
new six never appeared in the W124 and that it would have been a pretty big
redesign job to stretch a W124 to W140 S-class (the vehicle on which the
Chairman's styling is so obviously based) dimensions.
There is a lot more W140 in the Korean masterpiece than there is W124 in my
view.
If so that is hardly a bad thing; the W140 was the last of the
over-engineered Benzes, arguably the best of the S-classes and the vehicle on
which the Maybach revival was based.
The S320 was also the most liveable incarnation, lacking the extra weight and
running costs of the V8 and V12 models, and delivering a sharper drive than the
bigger engined models by all accounts.
Performance (8.2 seconds to 100km/h, top speed nudging 240km/h) is
``adequate'' as they say in the classics and it is still hard to top a
well-maintained W140 when it comes to ride comfort, noise suppression and that
vital S-class ``whisk'' factor.
While the Chairman never reached these levels of comfort and refinement
(after all it cost under $60,000 in 2005 compared to more than $200,000 for the
Benz in 1992/1993) it does give it a red hot go apparently.
And then, of course, there is that wonderfully quirky oriental touch.
Ssangyong's designers, like their predecessors who worked on cars such as the
Nissan President and the Toyota V8 limousine in the 1960s, subscribed to the
too-much-is-never-enough school of fenestration.
The result is an obviously Mercedes-inspired car replete with styling
flourishes, gizmos, motifs and bling that wouldn't look out of place on a
Cadillac.
It is this contrast with Mercedes's austere ``less is more'' philosophy that
I find so appealing. It is as if automotive terrorists have car jacked the
German premier and pimped her ride.
Would I own one? In a heartbeat. Would it get me kicked out of the Mercedes
Benz appreciation society? Almost certainly.
Would I give a damn? No way.
Engine: 3199cc, inline DOHC six cylinder producing 170kw at 5600rpm and 315Nm
of torque at 3750rpm.
Gearbox: 5 speed automatic.
0 to 100km/h 8.2 seconds
Length: 5113mm; Width: 1886mm; Height: 1497mm; Wheelbase 3040mm Kerb weight:
1890kg.
Ssangyong Chairman CM600S (2005 model)
Engine: 3199cc, inline DOHC six cylinder producing 162kw and 310 Nm of
torque.
Gearbox: 5 speed automatic.
Length: 5135mm; Wheelbase: 2900mm; Kerb weight: 1810kw.
By David Ellery
This may sound perverse given my lifelong love affair with Mercedes Benz but
I would dearly love to get my hands on a Ssangyong Chairman.
As one who has always been drawn to the slightly offbeat and surreal (after
all, who else do you know that hard a Lloyd Hartnett and a Prince Gloria as
their first and third cars respectively) I am a sucker for what I would describe
as post-modernist car designs where something quite familiar and highly regarded
in its own right is reinvented with a left-field twist.
My Gloria, the Datsun 240C and 240Ks and the early Toyota Crowns and
Cressidas easily qualified given that they were Japanese interpretations of
quality European designs.
The difference between those cars and the South Korean Chairman however is
that it clones German engineering rather than just drawing inspiration from
it.
In the 1990s Ssangyong worked closely with Mercedes Benz, using the Stuttgart
designed 3.2 litre straight six in its Musso 4WD under licence. MB designed
gearboxes and a diesel engine were also built in South Korea.
The build quality was such, despite the sledging that was directed at South
Korea's motor industry at the time, that Mercedes Benz was happy to sell the
Musso in its dealerships around the world until the advent of the M-Class (which
lacked the off-road ability of the Korean wagon).
Bruce Newton, in a May 10, 2005, review of the Ssangyong on the Drive
Website, claims the Ssangyong's underpinnings are a stretched version of that
excellent thing, the W124 E-class that was sold between 1984 and 1995 and did
much to redefine the world luxury car market.
I'm not entirely convinced this is the case given the 3.2 litre verson of the
new six never appeared in the W124 and that it would have been a pretty big
redesign job to stretch a W124 to W140 S-class (the vehicle on which the
Chairman's styling is so obviously based) dimensions.
There is a lot more W140 in the Korean masterpiece than there is W124 in my
view.
If so that is hardly a bad thing; the W140 was the last of the
over-engineered Benzes, arguably the best of the S-classes and the vehicle on
which the Maybach revival was based.
The S320 was also the most liveable incarnation, lacking the extra weight and
running costs of the V8 and V12 models, and delivering a sharper drive than the
bigger engined models by all accounts.
Performance (8.2 seconds to 100km/h, top speed nudging 240km/h) is
``adequate'' as they say in the classics and it is still hard to top a
well-maintained W140 when it comes to ride comfort, noise suppression and that
vital S-class ``whisk'' factor.
While the Chairman never reached these levels of comfort and refinement
(after all it cost under $60,000 in 2005 compared to more than $200,000 for the
Benz in 1992/1993) it does give it a red hot go apparently.
And then, of course, there is that wonderfully quirky oriental touch.
Ssangyong's designers, like their predecessors who worked on cars such as the
Nissan President and the Toyota V8 limousine in the 1960s, subscribed to the
too-much-is-never-enough school of fenestration.
The result is an obviously Mercedes-inspired car replete with styling
flourishes, gizmos, motifs and bling that wouldn't look out of place on a
Cadillac.
It is this contrast with Mercedes's austere ``less is more'' philosophy that
I find so appealing. It is as if automotive terrorists have car jacked the
German premier and pimped her ride.
Would I own one? In a heartbeat. Would it get me kicked out of the Mercedes
Benz appreciation society? Almost certainly.
Would I give a damn? No way.