gulfcoastcarguy

Hello to all, I am new to this forum and I am seeking info on a car that I just purchased. I have loved this car since I first saw it in 1992 when a friend of mine bought it at a government auction in Florida. It had been confiscated from a well known boat builder and racer and only had 6k miles on it. My friend drove it very little till He passed away and i just bought it with just under 14k miles.
What I know is that it has Carat by Duchatelet on the speedometer and on the door sills. It also has a metal wide body kit and Ronal Racing wheels.
I would appreciate any info that you may have on this beautiful car.

fintail

Duchatelet was pretty well known for W126 limos back in the day - a SEC has to be very rare. Here's a little blurb on them:

http://www.1000sel.com/index.php?opt...d=14&Itemid=13

Would love to see more pics, widebody SECs are awesome.

gulfcoastcarguy

Thanks for the reply Fintail. I cannot find a picture of anything close to this car on the net so i guess it must be rare. Here is a picture of one of the rear wheels. The wheels are in new condition without a blemish on them. I will post more pics when i can.

fintail

Your exact car is probably a one-off, as the cars were usually ordered bespoke to the exact spec of the customer. And even as a Duchatelet SEC, it is very rare - total production might not have exceeded 100 units. I have seen numerous period AMG and Koenig Special SECs, but only a couple images of Duchatelet versions.

The wheels are also rare, the Ronals I am familiar with are 5 spoke. Gemballa made a similar looking wheel with a painted flat face.

Does the car have engine modifications? I'd be interested in the interior trim as well.

You should also post all of this info on the 126 forum ( https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w126-61/ ) when you have the pics - you will probably be able to get more info than I can provide, and a lot of people will be very interested in seeing the car.

Limited Edition 190E

You may want to contact John Heflin in the GWS section of MBCA. I believe he used to own one of those.

fal50

fintail, may I correct you, you have never seen "a couple images of Duchatelet versions" because we never build any widebody version of the SEC.

Maybe you have never seen these wheels, but they where very common and used in racing, it's a simple 3 piece design.

Fredd
US importer for Carat Duchatelet, 1990 - 2005
ex belgian and familiar with everything done by Carat by Duchatelet since 1980.

fintail

I never said I had seen a Duchatelet widebody, just images of Duchatelet SECs. Interesting that it was never made though, it would be interesting who did the widebody conversion. Did Duchatelet modify cars already modified by others? It's that or someone else came later.

I was 12 years old at the end of the 80s, so some of my memories might not be accurate

fal50

The one and only time that Duchatelet did work on a car build by another company was the Albatros project from Sbarro.

I have the same problem with a not so accurate memory, difference is that I'm 63 .....

gulfcoastcarguy

Well i do appreciate the feedback guys. I guess this car will remain a bit of a mystery for now. I will let you know if i learn anything further.
Thanks again guys.

fintail

No problem. If you can find the time to post more photos, I am sure some people here (myself included) would be more than happy to see them, too.