Someone please buy this Mercedes 560 SEC

Welcome to, as of its release in the mid-Eighties, the most powerful Mercedes production car ever. Well, kinda.

Yep, the 560 SEC is the Eighties’ S-Class Coupe - a big, boaty two-door GT car for cannoning down Autobahns at an entirely legal and completely possible 155mph. One of our favourite old barges from that blocky Eighties/Nineties period when Mercs weren’t built, they were hewn.

In Europe its 5.6-litre V8 made 300bhp and 336lb ft, giving 0-62mph in a shade under seven seconds. But this “Blackberry Pearl” example, which is heading to auction on 8 March, is an American 560. That means thanks to emissions regulations it only makes a paltry 238bhp, but the fact it’s only done 8,000 miles from new, that it’s in superb condition, finished in a rare colour and is among the last built make it nonetheless hugely desirable. We would.

Auctioneer Gooding & Company reckons it’s going to fetch between $80,000 and $100,000, or about £77,000. That’s a lot for one of these. But given it does pretty much the same job as the modern-day S-Class Coupe, minus all that distracting tech you don’t really need and in 20 years will be a) out of date and b) broken, you could argue it’s a bit of a bargain. New ones are over £100K, easy, and the old 560 is mostly as pillowy soft and wafty. Not to mention way cooler, obviously.

Please someone, buy this car and drive it. It’s only done an average of 300-miles a year from new - it’s crying out for a road trip.

Images: Brian Henniker