R63 AMG The Unicorn of my Destruction

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Even though I have never changed the oil in a lawnmower, I have changed the oil in a few cars over the years.  One of the easiest is still my old E-class, with the cartridge filter...simple enough for a first day tire buster to handle.  Seriously though, I don't have sufficient tools, time or hoists to get more serious than pads and filters.

All that said, I just looked at some newer MB wagons offered up, but they just don't have the same appeal you've generated with your unicorn (got (R63 anyone?).  I actually think the story now attached to yours is what is going to make it truly valuable on the lawn one day: "Yes folks, this is the fabled Unicorn of Seth's Destruction, presented here today in all its glory."  Not a Steve McQueen castoff, but still it is always the story and the lineage that makes a collector valuable.  I hope you keep it.  If I ever get one, I'm coming to your nearest drive-in to shake your hand and take side by side car photos.

Keep us posted on this and your truck project!

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Deuce, FREAKN' AWESOME! Binge read the whole chain! My only input; I drive an ML6.3 AMG for a living (www.performancefilmworks) and we have adapted lug studs with proper nuts, the OEM lug bolts back out under the duress we inflict! And please go see our daughter perform this week at NRG Stadium in the Marvel Universe Live show. Her name is Keilani and she is Black Cat in the show. Aloha

In reply to moosedgedriver :

build thread please!

In reply to AngryCorvair :

Sorry, if you mean a build thread on the Edge System camera car, I cannot. It's VERY proprietary and NOT mine to divulge! I am but a humble precission driver that is paid to drive them. Please visit www.performancefilmworks.com to see them in action!

In reply to moosedgedriver :

Not the camera so much as the vehicle and the precision driving thereof.

Another one is up for sale:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2007-mercedes-benz-r63-15/

No mention made of the head bolts....

In reply to KaiserM715 :

The question was asked and answered early in the comments.  Apparently they were replaced at a dealer by the previous owner.

I guess I didn't scroll back far enough.

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I assume you have not sold the R yet. One just sold on BaT and another just popped up on BaT today, Maybe give it a whirl, after all, you are famous, hope all is well!

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I am saying, you can find out lots about the camera, the car build in particular is VERY proprietary. I cannot divulge ANYTHING about the car! You can see footage of the car(s) in action; https://www.youtube.com/user/PerformanceFilmworks    -    https://www.facebook.com/performancefilmworks/

In reply to honda1 :

I am doing well, thanks. Just getting back to the land of consistent internet after six weeks of only being able to check email when in town for groceries. I've answered several inquiries about the R63 this summer but nobody is beating down my door to take it home. I have a few phone calls to make, but I'm mostly looking forward to getting back to driving kids to school in it a couple days a week. 

Is it truly a commodity  that would generate a fair amount of $$$$$ to pursue your other endeavors , only to turn around and go gosh .....why did I sell it???

759NRNG said:

 a fair amount of $$$$$ to pursue your other endeavors.....

Need to finish getting home and upload a few pictures, but this is more true than you can guess. Not automotive, but still interesting, to the Mrs. and I anyway. 

^ Intrigued. 

I just fired up the van and took it for a drive. It's lovely. Suspension held air over the summer which confirms that it's healthy which is nice. If you've emailed or called me about the van over the summer, please check back in with me now that I'm home. I have a list of emails to send this week and I don't want to miss anyone. That includes the people who have gotten my number and called me on my home phone because it's dumb and doesn't store the numbers of people that have called like a cell phone. 

With that out of the way, a very quick detour "how mazdeuce sucks with money and cooks up justifications for doing things that are almost purely emotional"

We own this cottage. It's nice. Spend the summers here with the kids, that sort of thing. We've owned it for 12 years and it's been paid off for most of them. The intention is to retire here. 

This is where I have my morning coffee two months of the year. I really can't complain. 

There are a couple of issues, but we've considered them minor things to be dealt with as retirement nears. It's a summer cottage and was built as such by a guy who had.......ideas. It's not insulated as well as you'd like for winter, all the windows are old and mismatched, the siding is on it's very last legs and there's no garage. It's not built as weirdly as my house in Texas, but I've gotten pretty good at scratching my head over the years. 
Down the road a couple of miles we own a fairly decent chunk of land but it's on the woods side of the road, not the beach side. I've been planning to build a shop there. There are a couple of houses on the beach side of that property but also some lots that haven't been built on. One of those is 330 feet wide and 5-ish acres (our cottage is on a 100 foot lot). It's been listed off and on since we bought our cottage. It used to be stupid expensive, then very expensive, and when Mrs. Deuce got up there this year she picked up a book of for sale stuff at the local realtor and it was cheap. Well, not cheap per se, but ballpark-ish of what one might get if they decided to sell their two 500+ hp cars as their oldest kid starts college in an attempt to be responsible. 

Mrs. Deuce kind of suggested that it might be possible to someday live in a house built by someone who knows how to build things and isn't just making it up as they go along. I was a liiiiiiitle insulted by what that might mean, but her eyes were all shiny and excited so I held my tongue. Just imagine this spot with slightly less trees and 100% more house. 

So basically, I attempted to simplify my life and be responsible with money and now I have even less money and the prospect of building a freaking house in a decade or so. I'll talk more about all of this in the Grosh thread so as not to randomly drift down any more roads than I have in this thread. Mrs. Deuce is extremely happy and planning out a kitchen that doesn't suck. I'm pretty darn happy, slightly freaked out, and really should sell the van. 

For this real estate oh hell yeah......any where near 'Rocky Point'?

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I just fired up the van and took it for a drive. It's lovely. Suspension held air over the summer which confirms that it's healthy which is nice. If you've emailed or called me about the van over the summer, please check back in with me now that I'm home. I have a list of emails to send this week and I don't want to miss anyone. That includes the people who have gotten my number and called me on my home phone because it's dumb and doesn't store the numbers of people that have called like a cell phone. 

With that out of the way, a very quick detour "how mazdeuce sucks with money and cooks up justifications for doing things that are almost purely emotional"

We own this cottage. It's nice. Spend the summers here with the kids, that sort of thing. We've owned it for 12 years and it's been paid off for most of them. The intention is to retire here. 

This is where I have my morning coffee two months of the year. I really can't complain. 

There are a couple of issues, but we've considered them minor things to be dealt with as retirement nears. It's a summer cottage and was built as such by a guy who had.......ideas. It's not insulated as well as you'd like for winter, all the windows are old and mismatched, the siding is on it's very last legs and there's no garage. It's not built as weirdly as my house in Texas, but I've gotten pretty good at scratching my head over the years. 
Down the road a couple of miles we own a fairly decent chunk of land but it's on the woods side of the road, not the beach side. I've been planning to build a shop there. There are a couple of houses on the beach side of that property but also some lots that haven't been built on. One of those is 330 feet wide and 5-ish acres (our cottage is on a 100 foot lot). It's been listed off and on since we bought our cottage. It used to be stupid expensive, then very expensive, and when Mrs. Deuce got up there this year she picked up a book of for sale stuff at the local realtor and it was cheap. Well, not cheap per se, but ballpark-ish of what one might get if they decided to sell their two 500+ hp cars as their oldest kid starts college in an attempt to be responsible. 

Mrs. Deuce kind of suggested that it might be possible to someday live in a house built by someone who knows how to build things and isn't just making it up as they go along. I was a liiiiiiitle insulted by what that might mean, but her eyes were all shiny and excited so I held my tongue. Just imagine this spot with slightly less trees and 100% more house. 

So basically, I attempted to simplify my life and be responsible with money and now I have even less money and the prospect of building a freaking house in a decade or so. I'll talk more about all of this in the Grosh thread so as not to randomly drift down any more roads than I have in this thread. Mrs. Deuce is extremely happy and planning out a kitchen that doesn't suck. I'm pretty darn happy, slightly freaked out, and really should sell the van. 

wait WHAT? All things aside congrats man. 

In reply to spacecadet :

Ya, I get into all sorts of trouble when I'm hanging out with my wife a lot. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:This is where I have my morning coffee two months of the year. I really can't complain. 

Most of the post deleted for brevity.  I believe you need to buy a Maserati and see if it does 185.

In reply to Knurled. :

Funny you should mention that..... and no, not buying a Maserati. For now. 

We went out as a family this weekend so we took the the R63 because it's awesome. While driving I pointed out to Mrs. Deuce that driving it for just family stuff and once or twice a week to drop kids off will cost us something like $1 a mile when you wrap insurance and registration and an oil change each year and all that into it. Not quite Lamborghini money, but playing the same general game. She said "You want a Lamborghini anyway, this is basically the same thing. It's just a supercar for the whole family. If you can't handle this then how will you ever be able to handle the emotional stress of a real exotic." 

So yes, this van is basically the equivalent of me buying a stupid exotic in my mid 40's except instead of me getting a divorce and a 22 year old girlfriend before hand I'm keeping my wife and kids because I love them and I want to share my idiocy with them.

Live continues to be good to me. So far. 

What does she mean a "real" exotic?

If a niche-marque luxury vehicle with total production numbers measurable in the low three digits is not exotic, then what is?

FWIW.  The Mercedes dealer up the block from where I work is an AMG specialist.  There's a bank next door to us that is out of business and the dealership is using it as overflow parking.  There's an AMG Gelaendewagen (G43?) in the lot.  Now THAT thing is silly...

Edit:  It's a G63.  I got confused because I thought they stopped making the 6.3l, and Da Boss's FIL has a C43 (which has brakes I lust for.  LUST)

The current crop of 63 cars are (I think) turbo 5.5 liter V8's. They decided to keep the 63 label as their top of the line motor even though displacement is changing. The current ones are bonkers $ wise but the ones that I think are really bonkers are the G wagons with the twin turbo V12 like Cotton has in his cars. All things considered, the big naturally aspirated V8 in the R63 is one of the more sane motors Mercedes has built. 

And I understand that the R63 is an exotic, and you understand that, and my wife understands it, but to 99.9% of the people that see it the R63 is a big dumb minivan. After driving the 911 around I realize that part of the exotic "experience" is the reaction you get from people, and the 911 is a pretty damn lame exotic on the scale of exotics. Driving a certain kind of car, at least where I live, makes the people around you happy. Kids look, people talk to you at the gas station. As special as the R63 is, that feeling is limited to me when I pull it out. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

In reply to Knurled. :

Funny you should mention that..... and no, not buying a Maserati. For now. 

We went out as a family this weekend so we took the the R63 because it's awesome. While driving I pointed out to Mrs. Deuce that driving it for just family stuff and once or twice a week to drop kids off will cost us something like $1 a mile when you wrap insurance and registration and an oil change each year and all that into it. Not quite Lamborghini money, but playing the same general game. She said "You want a Lamborghini anyway, this is basically the same thing. It's just a supercar for the whole family. If you can't handle this then how will you ever be able to handle the emotional stress of a real exotic." 

So yes, this van is basically the equivalent of me buying a stupid exotic in my mid 40's except instead of me getting a divorce and a 22 year old girlfriend before hand I'm keeping my wife and kids because I love them and I want to share my idiocy with them.

Live continues to be good to me. So far. 

Just as i figured... you behind the wheel of the 'R' headin' up 1314 towards Cornrow commiserating  about life in general and waddya know..... a gosh i shoulda kept it moment.....Good on Y'all !!!!

Just curious if you’ve sold your R63 yet??  Your AutoTrader ad is still listed.  

Thanks!!
 

In reply to NoahWeb :

I haven't. Still driving the kids around in it. Still awesome. Still for sale though............