Speaking of Mercedes, last Sunday night somebody smushed a big Mercedes SUV against a 30" dia tree out front.
When I went out Monday there was yards of yellow "Police - Do Not Cross" tape tied on the stop sign pole and the whole plastic nose of that SUV laying there. Looked like it was only broken at the attach points.
 Anyway the driving lights looked unharmed so I decided to salvage them along with the harness.
I got them but they don't want to light, at least from my jump box.
The harness starts at a 5 prong plug, there are black, brown, and purple wire for the lights, brown & purple to one and brown and black to the other.
The remaining two wires are a smaller gage brown & blue/white going to a thingy. Thingy's purpose? Damifino.
This thingy looks like a rubber bump stop like on some drawers and doors but much bigger.



It looks like the tapered down nose should be flexible, but it's not.
Taking the electrical plug off, inside is solid at about where the .700 flange is with two metal pins sticking out.
There are two guide ribs down the inside and a rib on the plug so it goes together one way only.
Whatever it is it's working blind, completely enclosed, I wonder if it triggers airbags or seat belt tensioners?
 really doesn't matter, but not being able to identify what the hell it is, what it's for, is annoying.

Oh Oh, when i went to put it back together I spotted tiny writing. Magnifying glass wouldn't cut it, microscope.
Being tiny and molded into the rubber it took Pepsi Zero Sugar, pencil lead(graphite) alcohol(rubbing) to decipher...
Continental Czech Republic 85  40376994. It's a genuine Mercedes Ambient Air Temperature Sensor. 

Hey, thanks for coming along, hope you enjoyed the trip.

Complexity is its own reward?

German engineering. LOL.

Mans inhumanity to cars...

 

That neat Olds could have easily competed with Vettes and TBirds given the chance.

Bottom one looks like a Vega with a Firebird kammback on it, with early GTO/LeMans taillights...

This wonderful basically GM special came to mind right away:
cheetah car - Bing images

And the rear wheel wells exposed the whole tire suggesting if you wanted/needed wider tires no problem.
That was one of the style points on the '55 Nomad they unfortunately lost in subsequent years.

that looks like the car version of the Necronomicon

Drag Race... obviously a publicity stunt, wacky one at that.
=13px

 

120 years ago engines weren't very reliable.
The obvious solution is two...

edit - that $5000 is $172,115.44 today.

Last edited by xoxoxoBruce (1/07/2024 3:22 am)

This nifty temptation for those with more money than god...

After that $485,000 basic list price there are options like the 007 option.
It has a siren, blinding lights, smoke/fog generator, tear gas spray and more.
I doubt it has wing machine guns... at least not real ones, but I don't know about the ejection seat.
 

Gawd, those cars are SHINY.

That shiny surface, reflecting rows of lights on the ceiling, is what the rendering on Iron Man's armor was originally supposed to represent. The funny thing is, that same stuff is reflected on his armor no matter where he is. He's perpetually lit up like an auto show.

eta: you know what gets reflected on 'Metal Mario' on the N64? this:



...



 

Last edited by Flint (3/22/2024 3:10 pm)