Great looking car. I hear velour was more expensive than leather so I don't know about "poverty." There was houndstooth cloth known affectionately as poverty cloth though. I have heated velour seats in my car in beige, they are really classy looking. Unfortunately the material is both rare, hard to find, and expensive so hopefully you wont need to do any repairs to it.
The euro model cars have manual climate control which is much better than the auto CC system in US models which is a POS.
You'll need to do plugs/wires and check for vacuum leaks. The plugs you want are Bosch W7dc(7500), use non-resistor plugs. I have the box from the wires I used last time if you want the #, I used bosch wires as the original Beru/MB ones are around 200$. The bosch wires were like 85$ and work fine if you want the number let me know. If the bosch plugs are hard to find I think you can use NGK bp6es but I'm not certain on that. These plugs are getting hard to find.
The m110 euro engine puts out between 170-185hp depending on model so it is no slouch. My car will hit 100mph on the freeway with no issues. If the car feels slow there is probably something wrong with it. My engine will rev past 6000rpm in good tune and just like the NASCAR announcer say,"is that bumble bees in the engine."
You might also want to do a valve adjustment on the engine as the engine uses solid lifters which need to be adjusted every 10,000 miles. You will also want to check/replace as many suspension bushings that you can get at. Sign up for mercedes EPC(european parts center) with your credit card, it is free but they use the credit card to keep chumps away.
Be sure and check the front and rear flex discs as they crack with age. If you blow a driveshaft up you might be screwed depending on if they one from a US model 280se will work. My car has a unique driveshaft for a 6cyl in a r107 slc and if it blows I have to find one from either another 280slc or 1st gen 380slc. The U-joint in non-servicible unless you find a good driveshaft shop with the correct balancing machine.
Sign up at benzworld and hit the w116 forums and good luck with the car.
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