Hand brake (emergency brake lever for our American cousins) lever on right hand

[Merc_Girl]

Folks
Now I’ve found a strange one here. So, I’ll be getting my rhd Pagoda hopefully within the month!
I have always been told that Mercedes never created a pagoda with the hand break on right hand side of the transmission tunnel, and indeed books I have read say the same.
However, I always like to see what’s happening in the market place and I spotted a pagoda on eBay which shows the hand break on the right.
I contacted the seller out of curiosity to see who did this for them, and also the centre console, but they said everything is original. Surely this can’t be correct, not withstanding the fact that the hand break has the ‘kink’ to the left, like those on the left of the transmission tunnel. Surely if it were ‘original’, the ‘kink’ would go towards the right?
Has anyone seen this before?

[MikeSimon]

I have not seen this  but this doesn't mean much. I am not that much of a Pagoda expert. All the pictures of rhd drive pagodas I have, do show the "hand brake" on the left of the tunnel.
BTW: The more common name for this in the United States (where your American cousins live) is "Parking Brake".

[Paul & Dolly]

I think we saw this car here on site a couple of years ago, there was quite  some
 discussion about it, it also had a very bright WHITE leather interior which was also not Original.

Paul

[alpina]

This is the car back in 2016.
https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=25122.msg179579#msg179579

[ejboyd5]

The "2016" car must have undergone a complete redo to become the one now being discussed in 2020.  About the only thing the two cars have in common is the hand brake lever placement on the right side of the transmission tunnel.

[alpina]

This is the eBay ad for the car.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1969-Mercedes-Benz-280-SL-PAGODA-RHD-COUPE-AUTO/202905172224?hash=item2f3e173900:g:ZDkAAOSwEcReOGM0

The owner is a forum member "ohoraherecaptian"  He has posted in the past about repainting and re newing the interior to his own taste.  I fully support his desire to
change to colour and interior, and do what he likes.  It is his car and his is the only Opinion that matters.
However the sale price on eBay seems a little high. For that price I would expect a far better paint finish, paint in one shot shows a lot of orange peel and micro blisters.

[Paul & Dolly]

I don't think that is the car (alpinaltd) that I had in mind, so maybe there are two cars in UK with a converted handbrake.

Paul

[Merc_Girl]

Yes, this was on eBay!

Thank you Mike for correcting my misinterpretation of hand break, believing our cousins overseas called it an emergency break. Someone definitely names a handbrake  as an emergency break’. I wonder who that is?


However, a ‘bonnet’ is a bonnet, not a ‘hood’
A wing remains a wing, not a fender
And a boot is a boot, not a trunk

😂😂😂😌

[Merc_Girl]

It does appear to be the same car, or at least the number plates are the same!

Quite different to the original posting!

[Merc_Girl]

Also must apologise to all for my poor spelling,,

That should be Handbrake not hand break, which is an entirely different problem if that happens!!!,

[Garry]

And a fender is not a wing but a mud guard.


I believe all Pagodas were produced with the brake on the left and there was quite a discussion on how to do the conversion from left to right for the RHD cars way back on the Forum.  Something I looked at doing but decided to stick with originality in the end and did not do and a question often asked by non Pagoda people.
The one in the photo looks like a neat conversion.

[Merc_Girl]

Thanks Gary

However Mud guards are on bikes and motorbikes, not cars, even if you are in Oz!🙃

In some things I like to keep to originality, but being a shorty, getting a manual, and living in a little bit of a hilly area, I thought it might make life a little easier. Whilst a neat conversion, I do worry how the handbrake is fully released as the handle had a kink to the left to avoid the transmission tunnel, by moving to the right there would be little/no clearance when the brake is released

On a separate thing, I see you have quite a collection of cars 😁. A question on your 230SL, what is the ‘Touring’ you mention at the end?

[Garry]

My 230sl was what was called a Tourist delivery, where it was ordered in Sydney as an Australian spect car for pick up at the factory, then used for a month or two before returned to factory for shipping to Australia. 


MB identified it on the data card as a tourist delivery and it was given temp registration in Germany.



It was a way in those days to save quite a bit in import duties as well as having a holiday doing the acceptance.


On the handbrake positioning with the handle kink, when i did my research quite a few years ago, i believe it worked just fine on the right the way it was set up.  I don’t think it went down to the degree that they do on the left side and the handle raised more than the original to compensate for the higher start point when not on.


Garry

[MikeSimon]

Could it be that Mercedes mad SOME car with the parking brake lever on the right side of the tunnel and someone used that part to convert?

[MikeSimon]

Merc-Girl: I should not be one to correct anybody about the English language and its American idioms. I am German, displaced to the U.S. some 30 years ago. But I always learned the term "parking brake" for the "Handbremse"..Even some of the owners manuals and dash infos in cars I owned used that term.

[stickandrudderman]

I am certain of two things:
1. The park/hand brake was never fitted to the right side of the transmission tunnel ex-factory.
2 I know the car in those pictures and the conversion was not done by me. It seemed to work just fine though and I certainly wouldn't condemn a car that has had it done.

[Merc_Girl]

Thanks everyone

Sorry if folk got upset by what I thought was a little joke over the different terminologies used by our friends overseas on the naming convention of different car parts 😁

Given Germany designed the first vehicles, now referred to as cars, we should surely defer to German friends as the correct names for vehicle parts 🤔

With thanks again for everyone’s support, even if we did go a little ‘off piste’., a divergence from my original post me thinks?

Perhaps I should start another post on the different terminology used across the continents? 😁

Katie

[ejboyd5]

Is "brake" usually spelled "break" in the UK?

[stickandrudderman]

Is "brake" usually spelled "break" in the UK?

Only when preceeded by "Tea".........

[JamesL]

And most things are preceded by tea

[MikeSimon]

Who got upset??? If it looks like it, I DID NOT!

[FGN59]

Sorry for barging in on this wonderful and typical Anglo-saxon discussion of all kinds of niceties delivered with such a fine sense of humour, on left and right handedness, brakes and breaks, tea and ... (whisky or whiskey?), but I cannot resist mentioning the fact that the first AUTO-mobile was a French steam contraption invented in 1769 no less, that the institution governing many motor sports internationally is called the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) and not the IAF or IFA, and that the first automobiles using petrol engines were invented at about the same time by Edouard Delamare-Boutteville (Fr) and by Gottfried Daimler (Ger.), etc. etc. Why one went on to develop one of the most respected car enterprises in the world, the very existence of which is what brings us together on this forum, and the other has been totally forgotten, is not relevant, of course.

The fact that Germany nearly took over the world in the early 1940s, caught up with the rest of us in less than ten years after being flat-bombed at the end of the war and then left most of Europe in the dust, that it currently has almost no net government debt, etc. etc., does not nearly make it worthy of a country that produced Brigitte Bardot, the Citroen DS and the tire-bouchon!

Long live the Queen, nevertheless! And, by the way, isn't she of German origin?

[Merc_Girl]

Ok, so it seems we continue our banter over the web.😁
Whilst I love the French and they manufactured some the loveliest cars, such as Bugatti, Citroen DS of course, I think their designs went awry in the 80’s as did the build quality

Yes, royal family are from German decent, ‘Gw’d bless ‘em’, and we have also had French (Norman the conqueror), Dutch (William of Orange), Italian (Romans). Vikings and Saxons. We are therefore what I believe is called a good mongrel race!
None the less, our great ancestors went to a lot of trouble to visit foreign places, with our Union Jack (and a few guns) to inform these places that they were now part of our colonies!
So therefore, out of respect to their dedication of not caring a damn about others, I think we should keep to the English (UK) (as Microsoft would have it) for all words!
Alternatively, as a hands across the water gesture, why don’t we just make up new words, it worked for Shakespeare after all 🤭. Maybe we should all meet over a virtual cup of tea ☕️ , and break/brake/stop/haunt/Arrêtez/put a sock in it/formats/hou op/ stad ah☺️

Oh, and thanks for letting me know what FIA stood for, I thought it was Ferrari International Assistance!!?!! 🤣

[FGN59]

Madam, I bow to your sense of à propos (poor Italians)!

Let me also express an immense respect for a people, mongrel or else, whose leaders stood, nearly alone in the world and faced with possible invasion (depending on the epoch, by various kinds of barbarians), and, seeing fog on the Channel, rejoiced at the thought that the Continent would remain isolated. Who else would have this gumption? Truly, the world would be poorer without the English. 😊

I’ll gladly sample this virtual tea of yours, as an honoured guest of this group, as it is an interesting idea, on par with an oval rugby ball, a crooked golf club, an out-of-balance lawn ball, etc.

Enjoy your Pagoda, as we all here members do, with or without break, but with brakes, hand or foot! 😉

[MikeSimon]

Being an ardent fan of the distillate so named, I must oppose the notion that "whisky and whiskey" is a matter of different spellings! While all the words originate from the Gaelic "Uisce Beatha" _ Water Of Life, there is a distinct difference between Scotch Whisky - distilled from barley malt dried over peat fire, Irish Whiskey - barley malt air dried, Bourbon Whiskey - Corn and Rye Whiskey - you guessed it, rye.
So, only the "Scotch" variety is called "Whisky". This is not a matter of where you live, whether you are German, American, Anglo-Saxon, French or Japanese...
Another bit of useless knowledge
And in case you wonder, my favorite "Uisque Beatha" comes from the Isle of Islay