Another example of Merc precision. They wouldn't have given him permission to represent them, if he hadn't got this enormous product confidence and knowledge. Considering Merc is trusting this one-off model into the hands of somebody else than a Merc expert, the whole situation is very relaxed and highly enjoyable to watch. Wouldn't trust it to be lent to the "ex-Top Gear" mob.
+Lazy Game Reviews It's always a cool moment when you find out that one of your favorite channels on TH-cam is subscribed to another one of your favorite channels. lol
Hey, Clint. Nice to see you subscribed here. I knew you were to other car channels you mentioned in a previous video, but this is my favorite. He talks about all cars from classics like this to supercars.
I don’t think there is a more deserving person than Jay to get to drive all these iconic cars because he knows about them from nostalgia. He learned about them and one day hoped and inspired to drive them, and big ups to the Mercedes Classic Center and all the similar organizations that support Jay and allow them to showcase their vehicles on this channel because Jay and they are sharing them with all of us in this channel who would never know about them much less see them in action without their joint efforts. Really wonderful stuff, I was in awe looking at the rear quarter panel angle of this car driving on the freeway, while reminiscent of the M1, it looked like something from another galaxy.
I was sure I missed this one too, until he mentioned the Nardo-testings. Then I remembered reading about it in the Guinness Book of Records. Now I have seen one .
I had a model of this car when I was a kid. I adored it everyday, it was my most favorite car in collection. So happy to see it in this video. Thanks Jay!!!
Me too. It was in this same color. Cabal was really short (maybe about 1.2 m), It was the first toy car I had. That was in the seventies of the last century. As I write this, I remember those times with sadness. How happy the children were with the little things. Everything is different now. The last thing I remember driving a car was when there was a Live Aid concert in 1985. I was watching Live Aid broadcast live from London and Philadelphia (it said Color on the TV). After that, I don't remember what happened. What beautiful times.@@marioseoul
Nice! Mine came with a blue MB 350SL, silver Lamborghini Miura, green GT70 & a pink Bertone Beachbuggy. I still have everything except the buggy (stolen) & sadly my CIII lost its doors...
I had it as a remote control (on a cable and with batteries in the control unit). It even popped the lights and they had working little bulbs inside. Best toy ever at night for a six year old boy!
I love the way even Mercedes prototypes from the 70's were just as well engineered and built as their production cars of the period. When Jay closed the gullwing door, halfway through the road test, it still shut with that reassuring thunk, you'd expect from an S-Class. Sounds nice too, it's just a shame they never put it into even a limited production.
I remember when a C111 came to Costa Rica in the early 70's, it was showed at the MB dealer just in front of the main street at the capital. I was around 7 years old but I knew (thanks to Grandpa and uncle Alberto) how interesting this car was. The metallic orange color was perfect for that car. The interior was something out of this world. I also remember that it had huge rear wheels, bigger than the ones on the car in this video. Still, in my opinion, a great design!
This has to be one of THE most informative automotive show of ALL TIME. Every new video showcases something either extremely rare, a special edition or just has something that any person can learn about. You don't have to be a car nut to appreciate a show as simple and as dedicated to automobiles as this one. Good job Jay and thank you!
@@christopetkov4168 bruh, his voice was _dead_ consistent throughout the video, and his responses were crisp and clear with not stuttering or pauses. That takes a lot more than just a quick study session the night before.
The fellow, Constantin, who is with Mr Leno, seems pretty knowledgeable about Mercedes history and certainly this car..... for his age. He has had a few guys show up who were like car salesman in the past. Knowing about the specifics of this car and having some personality in speaking about it, makes this another really GOOD video.
ToxicDonut81 Oh yeah, I agree, but theres this one video Jay did a while back, I think it was on the new Corvette (don't quote me on that) but the guy GM sent for that one seemed to be something of an idiot. He said his job there was "the driver" sounds like a minimal job title to me, and his knowledge of the car showed, couldn't really go by his word in that video. This guy on the other hand is a relief!
+Mickey Cook I've met with Constantin and he (as well as the people he works with at the Classics Center) is that knowledgeable about all the cars they have there - and they have a lot of oddities in the MB lineup at the center in Irvine. And most of the techs and engineers that work there have their own cool classics as daily drivers. This one is truly one of my favorite cars... I wish they would have a modern successor.
+Mickey Cook Well stated. This is a great episode and the dialogue was as interesting as the car. And what a timeless design. It seems strange that after the huge effort put into it that they didn't work out the remaining issues and take some version of it to market. Especially considering folks were throwing blank checks at them!
It's like a greenhouse, just look at it! It gets WARM inside that car. Only Italians are enthusiasts enough to sit in a car like that without A/C (and without a radio reciever, for that matter ...)
Maybe but the *1940 Packard* was the first car to offer factory-installed air-conditioning. The *1953 Chrysler Imperial* was one of the first production cars in twelve years to offer modern automobile air conditioning as an option, following tentative experiments by already-mentioned Packard in 1940 and *Cadillac* in 1941. th-cam.com/video/KQ77pSVyCik/w-d-xo.html&app=desktop Walter Chrysler had seen to the invention of *Airtemp* air conditioning in the 1930s for the *Chrysler Building* , and had offered it on cars in 1941-42, and again in 1951-52.
I well remember the C111 when it debuted and was on the cover of Road & Track magazine. I was 22 or 23 then. Today, most young people would not know what this car is or it's history. I can just about imagine in SoCal traffic, this time machine goes past them with the European Plates, and they gawk and see that MB star and say WTF is that? A Benz? When did they build that? Never saw one before... You gotta love it. BTW - I was an avid Road & Track / Car & Driver magazine reader in the late '50s through the 1960s and up to the mid-'70s. I owned and drove a 1963 Austin Healey 3000, a 1956 Jaguar Xk 140, A 1959 Morgan Roadster, and a 1987 Jaguar XJS V12 Coupe. Great times and lots of Adventures back then. Sports cars were affordable, and each marque had its quirks and faults, but you still drove them, loved them, protected them, and lovingly maintained them. It was all about the experience on the road and the way each one felt to you. It was the road feel in the Steering Wheel, the sound of the engine as you shifted gears and heard the engine grumble and babble, and felt the wind in your face, sometimes the rain too and if you were like me back then, you were a different breed of cat who did your own things and didn't really care what other people thought or said about sport car people or their cars. Kids in `55, 56, 57 Chevys with loud exhaust pipes in the mid-1960s thought they were cool - until you happened to pull next to them in a gorgeous red Jaguar XK 140 with chrome knock-off wire wheels, driving lights, a real leather interior, and that rear placard that read WINNER Le MANs 51-53. What an Era. Loved every minute of it.
I too owned a pretty fair share of sports cars in the early 70's and each of them had some outstanding attributes and a ridiculous fault or two. You delt with the faults and revelled in the attributes. The likes of which you couldn't imagine if raised with Detroit iron as the family cars. Experienced automotive quirks i never dreamed existed with British sports cars and aside from my 427 Corvette my greatest enlightenment came behind the wheel of my Alfa Romeo and my Peugeot. This where i discovered the expectations of the French and the Italians. Contrary to popular opinion i found the build quality abd engineering of my '66 Alfa roadster to be exceptional. Ah, and the Peugeot. What to say about the beloved 1970 504? Even including the experience of spinning a rod bearing the Peugeot taught me so much about the comfort, handling, smoothness of a well balanced precision built engine. Even the durability of the era's most popular car for the primative African conditions.
Thank god we got guys like a Jay who’s got millions of dollars and is willing to give us a show the networks wouldn’t have put on the air - genuine passion for people and cars, love this guy.
As a kid in Yugoslavia, I got one of these for a birthday. It was a 1:12 scale, plastic, pop-up lights operated from inside of cockpit by a lever, 6 way remote control, with "remote" being comands connected to a car via 1m wire cord.
So great to see her in the flesh, dreant abbout the C111 for as long as I remember! Thank you Jay! TW: Riding shotgun comes from the old horse drawn carriages, where to guy on the left was responsible of security against robbers and such. Hence shotgun.
Thanks to Jay and MB for sharing this piece of history. I had seen it in the recent MB commercial where they flash through all the models (incl. F1 etc.) and it really caught my eye, recalled it from some lost memory of car books and diecasts. What an amazing car for its time, or any time for that matter. Hats off to all involved!
I was in Germany on the autobahn in 1971 when 2 of these blasted by at 200 KPH. On the way to the Geneva Car show. AND they were driving them there. AT SPEED. With the AC on. Wow. Some prototype.
I was present at the Hockenheimring in 1970 when MB had three C-111's with four rotor Wankel engines there for tire testing. The engineers allowed me to wander around the pits and take a lot of photos. Finally, one of the engineers offered to take me for a lap. Wonderful cars. Too bad MB never put them into production.
Yeah, no doubt, the car's on loan from a 'benz museum, and, basically, priceless! Wouldn't be surprised if the guy driving the van had a gun... seriously.
When I was a child my father was a car salesman for Mercedes-Benz. Almost every day he came home for lunch in a different car to show it to a customer later. We often got die-cast models of the current cars from him. One day he gave my brother and me little C111s in this very orange colour. We boys waited for this sportscar to pull into our driveway but it never came.
WOW! I have never seen this car before, I have fallen in love with it instantly. It looks like a DeLorean but from a few years back, I hope Mercedes makes a supercar which resembles this. Great vid as usual Jay, massive fan of the show :)
I remember this car very well. As a Mercedes customer my dad used to get the customer magazine ”In aller Welt”. It was in german language although we lived in Finland. The various C111 models were featured a lot in those papers.
I lived in Germany, when this car was announced. They planned to make only 50 pieces. As this video shows, in those times a lot of changes and the car was never produced. Later in the eighties, I used to work in the airport and saw this very car on a pallet at Lufthansa. The Germans were guarding it but I had to do something. I put my finger on it :-) That was as close as I could get to this dream car.
When I was around 7, probably 1973 or 74, my dad gave me a C111 toy car that rocked! Rubber tires, opening doors, the steering wheel moved the front tires, reclining seats. It might have been my favorite toy car ever. Someone must have nicked it about a year later. I had forgotten this car existed until a few minutes ago, thanks :-)
Just to show how german Mercedes-Benz is, those pedals are exactly the same as in my W124. They used those for at least 4 decades... If it works well, don't change it...
I stated it once before in another Jay Leno Garage video, and I’ll state it again a little differently: Leno is a TH-cam purist with his channel. He literally keeps it 100 percent about the car, and nothing else. I know nothing about Leno except that he had a late night show and really enjoys cars. I appreciate him keeping his channel purely about the subject car in the video.
I am so envious of Jay Leno. He got to drive a C111, one of Mercedes dream cars. As a kid, I wanted one. And, seeing this, I still want it. Of course, I want any Mercedes in the 1970 to 1986 era. Those were the best cars ever built.
I remember having a cam driven model of that very Mercedes it used different shaped cam's to make it drive different patterns and it given to me by my aunt and uncle who was stationed in Germany. I wish I still had that model, even better yet, the real car.
Great printing presses indeed! I would watch a 40" 1976 SORSZ still printing at 8,000 sheets per hour or more at my father's printing business as late as a year ago... Aside from regular maintenance and a few delays here and there, they simply never quit on you. Even Victoria die cutting cylinders or presses from eastern Germany were simply indestructible, not to mention the precision of Heidelberg Speedmasters or modern Konig Bauer presses...
That's why I love his show! He comes up with the wildest, rarest cars, reviews them, then drives them, sometimes pretty hard! If not for the emblem, and the rear roof line, I'd mistake it as some sort of Lancia or even a mini Pantera. Very cool!
At 1:44, when they show the 3 cars, the top middle looks like something the cyber truck took a lot of cues from. Pretty crazy how far ahead of their time the designers were.
I must say respect to the mercedes guy, he seems to able to answer more or less any question about this exotic car without thinking twice.
Another example of Merc precision. They wouldn't have given him permission to represent them, if he hadn't got this enormous product confidence and knowledge. Considering Merc is trusting this one-off model into the hands of somebody else than a Merc expert, the whole situation is very relaxed and highly enjoyable to watch. Wouldn't trust it to be lent to the "ex-Top Gear" mob.
Obviously he was prepared
@@derrickstorm6976
Totally agree.
Nowadays, german cars have serious problems.........
@@tt-rs1457 it's not that. It's just obvious the guy prepared for the video
Why did you saw dat do you think twice before every question in the States?
One of my favorite experimental/concept cars from the era. Wow, was not expecting this on the show, this is excellent!
+Lazy Game Reviews Hey you!
+Lazy Game Reviews
It's always a cool moment when you find out that one of your favorite channels on TH-cam is subscribed to another one of your favorite channels. lol
Eyyyyyy nice to see you here.
+Lazy Game Reviews while I was not expecting you here!
Hey, Clint. Nice to see you subscribed here. I knew you were to other car channels you mentioned in a previous video, but this is my favorite. He talks about all cars from classics like this to supercars.
You see Jay trying to make conversation just so he can drive longer. That's a real car guy.
And he succeeded as they went back and forth like good friends. Obviously a great time for both of them.
you got to that's unobtanium right there
I don’t think there is a more deserving person than Jay to get to drive all these iconic cars because he knows about them from nostalgia. He learned about them and one day hoped and inspired to drive them, and big ups to the Mercedes Classic Center and all the similar organizations that support Jay and allow them to showcase their vehicles on this channel because Jay and they are sharing them with all of us in this channel who would never know about them much less see them in action without their joint efforts. Really wonderful stuff, I was in awe looking at the rear quarter panel angle of this car driving on the freeway, while reminiscent of the M1, it looked like something from another galaxy.
It looks so modern for 1970.
K ris so was Lamborghini Contach and other European cars
the overall shape looks like 90s, but the lights and individual design elements just scream 70s
Spastmatiker Exactly. To me it looks like a little like the Delorean ,
Modern like 1980 modern.
@@theman9907 the countach looks so old and cheap lol nothing about that looks modern
I never knew this car existed, thanks Jay
Agree, I said to myself what the hell is that?!
Michael S. I kind of knew about it, just not in detail!!😊
From what planet are y ? Its not alway US in this world !
Just take a look at the Citroën wankel !
I love the EU license plate. Well put. Mustache on a Mona Lisa ? Communism HO !
I was sure I missed this one too, until he mentioned the Nardo-testings. Then I remembered reading about it in the Guinness Book of Records. Now I have seen one .
I had a model of this car when I was a kid. I adored it everyday, it was my most favorite car in collection. So happy to see it in this video. Thanks Jay!!!
I had, and still have it, too! And it was battery powered with a little cable. Hmmm I better check that there's no battery in there leaking lol.
Me too. It was in this same color. Cabal was really short (maybe about 1.2 m), It was the first toy car I had. That was in the seventies of the last century. As I write this, I remember those times with sadness. How happy the children were with the little things. Everything is different now. The last thing I remember driving a car was when there was a Live Aid concert in 1985. I was watching Live Aid broadcast live from London and Philadelphia (it said Color on the TV). After that, I don't remember what happened. What beautiful times.@@marioseoul
What a super professional guest. Very very impressive. Really let Jay run his show properly.
One of my favorite toy cars as a kid, a Corgi Junior Mercedes C111. Thanks for the memory.
same!!!
I had a DiTomasso. Mangusta Corgi car in 1970 lol.
I had that
Nice! Mine came with a blue MB 350SL, silver Lamborghini Miura, green GT70 & a pink Bertone Beachbuggy. I still have everything except the buggy (stolen) & sadly my CIII lost its doors...
I had it as a remote control (on a cable and with batteries in the control unit). It even popped the lights and they had working little bulbs inside. Best toy ever at night for a six year old boy!
I love the way even Mercedes prototypes from the 70's were just as well engineered and built as their production cars of the period. When Jay closed the gullwing door, halfway through the road test, it still shut with that reassuring thunk, you'd expect from an S-Class. Sounds nice too, it's just a shame they never put it into even a limited production.
matthewbrown2037
Sorry, NOT any S-class luxury levels here, lightweight plexiglass doors, wombling on shock
I remember when a C111 came to Costa Rica in the early 70's, it was showed at the MB dealer just in front of the main street at the capital. I was around 7 years old but I knew (thanks to Grandpa and uncle Alberto) how interesting this car was. The metallic orange color was perfect for that car. The interior was something out of this world. I also remember that it had huge rear wheels, bigger than the ones on the car in this video. Still, in my opinion, a great design!
Good to know your uncle was called Alberto. So what was your grandpa's name? Might as well tell us your dad's name and your name too.
@@leodf1 and you take 3 years to read that?
@@joaonobre9003 Yes, and it took 3 years too to comment costa shitca is a shithole of a country.
@@joaonobre9003 loser Stfu.
@@LRS905 what's your problem loser?? Get a life.
This has to be one of THE most informative automotive show of ALL TIME. Every new video showcases something either extremely rare, a special edition or just has something that any person can learn about. You don't have to be a car nut to appreciate a show as simple and as dedicated to automobiles as this one. Good job Jay and thank you!
I'd never seen or heard of this car until tonight, this is awesome. I love the wheels.
Mercedes needs to make this again, now!
Proof that marketing guys CAN be interesting and have a soul! Well done!
appart from how nervous that guy is, to me it sounds like he memorized his flash cards last night ..
+ he’s german .. doesnt have a soul
@@christopetkov4168 bruh, his voice was _dead_ consistent throughout the video, and his responses were crisp and clear with not stuttering or pauses. That takes a lot more than just a quick study session the night before.
@@christopetkov4168”he’s german .. doesn’t have a soul”
Friend, that’s very low.
''Does it have air conditioning?''
''Yes it does''
''Very cool!''
The fellow, Constantin, who is with Mr Leno, seems pretty knowledgeable about Mercedes history and certainly this car..... for his age. He has had a few guys show up who were like car salesman in the past. Knowing about the specifics of this car and having some personality in speaking about it, makes this another really GOOD video.
+Mickey Cook Yeah, this dude very passionately knows what he's talking about, allows me to trust his word on everything he said.
+Mickey Cook It's his job. If Merc shipped me out to SoCal on a fat expat package to manage their classic center, I'd learn the history as well.
ToxicDonut81 Oh yeah, I agree, but theres this one video Jay did a while back, I think it was on the new Corvette (don't quote me on that) but the guy GM sent for that one seemed to be something of an idiot. He said his job there was "the driver" sounds like a minimal job title to me, and his knowledge of the car showed, couldn't really go by his word in that video. This guy on the other hand is a relief!
+Mickey Cook I've met with Constantin and he (as well as the people he works with at the Classics Center) is that knowledgeable about all the cars they have there - and they have a lot of oddities in the MB lineup at the center in Irvine. And most of the techs and engineers that work there have their own cool classics as daily drivers. This one is truly one of my favorite cars... I wish they would have a modern successor.
+Mickey Cook Well stated. This is a great episode and the dialogue was as interesting as the car. And what a timeless design. It seems strange that after the huge effort put into it that they didn't work out the remaining issues and take some version of it to market. Especially considering folks were throwing blank checks at them!
A/C in a 1970 concept car? That's impressive.
That is Mercedes-Benz, simple as that.
Gotta make sure it will fit and want over heat
It's like a greenhouse, just look at it! It gets WARM inside that car.
Only Italians are enthusiasts enough to sit in a car like that without A/C (and without a radio reciever, for that matter ...)
Maybe but the *1940 Packard* was the first car to offer factory-installed air-conditioning. The *1953 Chrysler Imperial* was one of the first production cars in twelve years to offer modern automobile air conditioning as an option, following tentative experiments by already-mentioned Packard in 1940 and *Cadillac* in 1941.
th-cam.com/video/KQ77pSVyCik/w-d-xo.html&app=desktop
Walter Chrysler had seen to the invention of *Airtemp* air conditioning in the 1930s for the *Chrysler Building* , and had offered it on cars in 1941-42, and again in 1951-52.
Mercedes ac is awfull
45 years since I first fell in love with the C111, and I'm still wishing they had taken it into production.
It would be like a "tough-supercar-cruiser" but damn it looked so much like a production ready..
I saw this car when I was eleven in the Mercedes Museum. I highly recommend it as a vacation destination to any car enthusiast. Best museum ever!
"There are some cars that are so special, so unusual..." says the man who owns a Chrysler Turbine.
I truly enjoy these episodes especially when the guests are so informative and are very knowledgeable. Plus this guy seems very cool overall.
I love listening to old man Leno when he gets into his stories
Me too! Jay Lenos' garage has given me a new respect for the man, y'know?!? ☺...
This was one of the best episodes on the channel so far.
I probably cannot speak on behalf of any car community, but on my behalf - thanks for being there, Jay - and making these cars live!
I well remember the C111 when it debuted and was on the cover of Road & Track magazine. I was 22 or 23 then. Today, most young people would not know what this car is or it's history. I can just about imagine in SoCal traffic, this time machine goes past them with the European Plates, and they gawk and see that MB star and say WTF is that? A Benz? When did they build that? Never saw one before... You gotta love it. BTW - I was an avid Road & Track / Car & Driver magazine reader in the late '50s through the 1960s and up to the mid-'70s. I owned and drove a 1963 Austin Healey 3000, a 1956 Jaguar Xk 140, A 1959 Morgan Roadster, and a 1987 Jaguar XJS V12 Coupe. Great times and lots of Adventures back then. Sports cars were affordable, and each marque had its quirks and faults, but you still drove them, loved them, protected them, and lovingly maintained them. It was all about the experience on the road and the way each one felt to you. It was the road feel in the Steering Wheel, the sound of the engine as you shifted gears and heard the engine grumble and babble, and felt the wind in your face, sometimes the rain too and if you were like me back then, you were a different breed of cat who did your own things and didn't really care what other people thought or said about sport car people or their cars. Kids in `55, 56, 57 Chevys with loud exhaust pipes in the mid-1960s thought they were cool - until you happened to pull next to them in a gorgeous red Jaguar XK 140 with chrome knock-off wire wheels, driving lights, a real leather interior, and that rear placard that read WINNER Le MANs 51-53. What an Era. Loved every minute of it.
Great post!! 👏👏👏👏😉
I would say less with much more words !
Vivid post thanks!
I too owned a pretty fair share of sports cars in the early 70's and each of them had some outstanding attributes and a ridiculous fault or two. You delt with the faults and revelled in the attributes. The likes of which you couldn't imagine if raised with Detroit iron as the family cars. Experienced automotive quirks i never dreamed existed with British sports cars and aside from my 427 Corvette my greatest enlightenment came behind the wheel of my Alfa Romeo and my Peugeot. This where i discovered the expectations of the French and the Italians. Contrary to popular opinion i found the build quality abd engineering of my '66 Alfa roadster to be exceptional. Ah, and the Peugeot. What to say about the beloved 1970 504? Even including the experience of spinning a rod bearing the Peugeot taught me so much about the comfort, handling, smoothness of a well balanced precision built engine. Even the durability of the era's most popular car for the primative African conditions.
wow. that is the most knowledgeable Marketing guy I have ever seen. dude knew the drag coefficient. well played sir. well played.
rblbatb it's especially awesome considering this car is closing in on 50 years old.
He started out at Mercedes giving guided tours at their museum and has climbed the ranks since. The perfect guy for showing this car to Jay Leno.
So what did he play well? Was he gambling? Negotiating?
Especially considering he's not a marketing guy, since this car is not marketable.
Women love bs, they rule the marketing biz now.
Wow! Never seen this before. Would never have guessed it's an MB if it weren't for that star.
+styx85 No kidding. Without emblems I'd guess Italian, hands down.'
it almost looks like a delorean
+greg raines Looks like a Maserati Merak or BORA.
+styx85 To me it looks like a cross between a Ford GT40 and a DeLorean
+styx85 yes!! iv done so much research on this car and its amazing how little information there is about it.
What a pleasant episode! Thank you Constantin and Jay.
This is a beautiful car...its as unique to me as the Fabulous Hudson Hornet and The Tucker...this is awesome!
Thank god we got guys like a Jay who’s got millions of dollars and is willing to give us a show the networks wouldn’t have put on the air - genuine passion for people and cars, love this guy.
I am glad that the TH-cam version of the show has continued, even though there's the CNBC version now.
Too many cars to just only review on CNBC. : )
NSU was one of the first car companies to use a wankel. Constantin von Kageneck. Wasn't he also a super villain from the James Bond series?
+TAOFLEDERMAUS So you are not just a gun guy but a car guy too.
fancy seeing you here!
+TAOFLEDERMAUS Wikipedia
I'm actually watching your rail gun upload next.
+TAOFLEDERMAUS I think he had a pegleg that looked like a stick shift and a secret lair located underneath the Nurburgring.
I had a green die cast of this as a kid. One of my favorites.
As a kid in Yugoslavia, I got one of these for a birthday.
It was a 1:12 scale, plastic, pop-up lights operated from inside of cockpit by a lever, 6 way remote control, with "remote" being comands connected to a car via 1m wire cord.
So great to see her in the flesh, dreant abbout the C111 for as long as I remember! Thank you Jay! TW: Riding shotgun comes from the old horse drawn carriages, where to guy on the left was responsible of security against robbers and such. Hence shotgun.
Thanks to Jay and MB for sharing this piece of history. I had seen it in the recent MB commercial where they flash through all the models (incl. F1 etc.) and it really caught my eye, recalled it from some lost memory of car books and diecasts. What an amazing car for its time, or any time for that matter. Hats off to all involved!
So cool that Jay got to actually drive this thing, and Constantine was a pleasure also. Many thanks to all involved for bringing this to us.
Even the radio works in a Mercedes concept car :-)
But it only plays radio stations from Stuttgart.
This is easily one of the coolest cars Ive ever seen
I was in Germany on the autobahn in 1971 when 2 of these blasted by at 200 KPH. On the way to the Geneva Car show. AND they were driving them there. AT SPEED. With the AC on. Wow. Some prototype.
I saw one at the museum in Stutgart 2017. My childhood dream car! loved this episode thanks guys
I was present at the Hockenheimring in 1970 when MB had three C-111's with four rotor Wankel engines there for tire testing. The engineers allowed me to wander around the pits and take a lot of photos. Finally, one of the engineers offered to take me for a lap. Wonderful cars. Too bad MB never put them into production.
Do you still have these pictures...?
They surely weren't intended for production.
Hey Jay, this is one of the best cars you've had on the show. Definitely one of my favorites. Thanks!
wow, oh my god, that thing is beautiful
Jay can collect his own and drive cars that he cannot collect !! so cool! Living the dream Jay !!
Hey Jay, please also bring the BMW M1 into the garage.
He should bring a M1 Procar, not just a "regular" M1
Check out the Mercedes van holding traffic away from this car @ 12:37!
Yeah, no doubt, the car's on loan from a 'benz museum, and, basically, priceless! Wouldn't be surprised if the guy driving the van had a gun... seriously.
Jay does not want to let this car go... Make them an offer Jay.
This was such an iconic car. I used to read a lot about older vehicles and I always thought this was an amazing feat of engineering for the time.
No mention of the NSU RO80 at the beginning? Special car.
I enjoyed every second of this video cause this car was a dream car for me since childhood, thanks for making me live my childhood with a big smile 👍
this car is absolutely beautiful
Awesome piece of history. And the best English accent from a German 😄. Props to Konstantin.
When I was a child my father was a car salesman for Mercedes-Benz. Almost every day he came home for lunch in a different car to show it to a customer later. We often got die-cast models of the current cars from him. One day he gave my brother and me little C111s in this very orange colour. We boys waited for this sportscar to pull into our driveway but it never came.
21:44 is the most 70s James bond-Esque shot in any JLG Episode.
Nice.
Gawd the rearend of that car looks so good! Can't take my eyes off it
Behave...
I get the feeling Jay and this guy are going to be friends for life.
Thanks for letting Jay and us see this rare vehicle.
love the Merc Van lurking in back, keeping eye on the artifact.
Watching Jay makes my day! This beautiful Merc surely was a childhood hero.
Simply amazing design, and gets perfect the concept later adopted on the 70's. Also the rear reminds me the Maserati Bora.
Really impressive knowledge from that guest. And this was just one car, imagine what else he knows.
WOW! I have never seen this car before, I have fallen in love with it instantly. It looks like a DeLorean but from a few years back, I hope Mercedes makes a supercar which resembles this. Great vid as usual Jay, massive fan of the show :)
It looks pretty unique. Maybe Turn10 could add this for DLC in Forza Motorsport 6, or even any future Forza titles.
+Atlas IS300 C.R I think it looks alot like a Lamborghini Espada, not at all like a Countach.
Apple Slipper I would love if they do that man :P
+Atlas IS300 C.R more like the lambo miura for me. Not really a fan of either tbh, but wouldn't turn a test drive down lol.
It was in a designer ad a year ago it was a parody you should check it out
Best channel on TH-cam. Jay is the best at this.
Always loved that Mercedes. The quality of Mercedes of that era was truly amazing. They should make the C111 now. Thanks Jay.
I remember this car very well. As a Mercedes customer my dad used to get the customer magazine ”In aller Welt”. It was in german language although we lived in Finland. The various C111 models were featured a lot in those papers.
It's always odd these cool looking cars never make it to Market. I see a Mercedes that I like. Powerful sounding V8.
I've seen this car all over instagram.... Jay you are the MAN
51 years old, it’s amazing ..
Saludos desde México. Eres mi ídolo Jay. A ese Mercedez solo lo conozco por un libro de mecánica automotriz de los años 90s que poseo. Es hermoso.
I really enjoyed the expertise of the "marketing guy"... great to see someone with so much knowledge on this show. :)
Fantastic video! Excellent chemistry between these two and it was a pleasure learning more about this amazing car. Great work all around.
Combination Firebird, DeLorean, Pantera
+Andrew Krohn Agreed
+Andrew Krohn I thought it was a pantera at first. lol
more like......nissan, rover 3000........
+rahowhero Ha, it does look like a Rover SD1, but bigger and less plastic.
+Andrew Krohn ... and a Maserati Merak, most of all!
I lived in Germany, when this car was announced. They planned to make only 50 pieces. As this video shows, in those times a lot of changes and the car was never produced.
Later in the eighties, I used to work in the airport and saw this very car on a pallet at Lufthansa. The Germans were guarding it but I had to do something. I put my finger on it :-)
That was as close as I could get to this dream car.
When I was around 7, probably 1973 or 74, my dad gave me a C111 toy car that rocked! Rubber tires, opening doors, the steering wheel moved the front tires, reclining seats. It might have been my favorite toy car ever. Someone must have nicked it about a year later. I had forgotten this car existed until a few minutes ago, thanks :-)
The dude looks like a perfect marketing guy, lean and tall with a hit of German accent sliping in
love the car. thanks for the show.did you ever do a show on the bricklin?
Just to show how german Mercedes-Benz is, those pedals are exactly the same as in my W124. They used those for at least 4 decades... If it works well, don't change it...
I stated it once before in another Jay Leno Garage video, and I’ll state it again a little differently: Leno is a TH-cam purist with his channel. He literally keeps it 100 percent about the car, and nothing else. I know nothing about Leno except that he had a late night show and really enjoys cars. I appreciate him keeping his channel purely about the subject car in the video.
This looks like it fits right in here in 2021. Because it does...
I thoroughly enjoyed the drive & conversation.
The '70s produced the greatest looking sports cars ever.
Long live the wedge!!
I had one as a young boy! But it was electric and by a wired remote driven 😊
Good stuff I like the comments
So did I 😅
I am so envious of Jay Leno. He got to drive a C111, one of Mercedes dream cars. As a kid, I wanted one. And, seeing this, I still want it. Of course, I want any Mercedes in the 1970 to 1986 era. Those were the best cars ever built.
In its 48th year and it still looks gorgeous.
I remember having a cam driven model of that very Mercedes it used different shaped cam's to make it drive different patterns and it given to me by my aunt and uncle who was stationed in Germany.
I wish I still had that model, even better yet, the real car.
German engineering at it's finest, I used to run a German printing press the 40' Heidelberg Press, what an engineering masterpiece it was!
Great printing presses indeed! I would watch a 40" 1976 SORSZ still printing at 8,000 sheets per hour or more at my father's printing business as late as a year ago... Aside from regular maintenance and a few delays here and there, they simply never quit on you. Even Victoria die cutting cylinders or presses from eastern Germany were simply indestructible, not to mention the precision of Heidelberg Speedmasters or modern Konig Bauer presses...
Heidelberg is a veery pleasent place!!! Been there for 3 days werent enough to see everythibg even though the town was tiny
In the opening of the video when I saw the car I thought, Oh what did this cost Jay? But apparently this vehicle is made out of pure Unobtanium.
This episode was a really enjoyable conversation from beginning to end, nice work!
That's why I love his show! He comes up with the wildest, rarest cars, reviews them, then drives them, sometimes pretty hard! If not for the emblem, and the rear roof line, I'd mistake it as some sort of Lancia or even a mini Pantera. Very cool!
I had a Matchbox of this as a kid. Literally unreal to see. Even on video.
Jay livin' the dream.
Lol! You noticed that! ☺
I read about the c111 when I was in jr high back in the 70s
And always wondered why I never saw 1
Well, now I know.
Awesome car
At 1:44, when they show the 3 cars, the top middle looks like something the cyber truck took a lot of cues from. Pretty crazy how far ahead of their time the designers were.
First time seeing or hearing about this awesome car and I'm pretty well versed. Very cool. Thanks for bringing it to the attention of so many people!
They should've put it into production
Yeah they shoulda!
Bryce wankel engine problems
This man was a pleasant guest . Another good interview and review .Thanks Jay.
Cars made in 1970 had the best designs in history.
i prefer mid 50's and 66 for american cars. but world wide i prefer the late 20's through the 30's(deusenberg,talbot,stutz etc.)
Still had the 1960s ideas going into 1970.
It's the 1980s where it all began to drift...
"Did it have air conditioning?"
"Yes"
"Very cool"
Badda boom!
The Guest and Jays banter towards the end of the episode was so wholesome and entertaining.