Mercedes steering wheels of the 60’s

Mercedes had rather elegant steering wheels in the 1960s.  Later, safety concerns led to a change to the padded, plastic type.  These were thin style, and from an era where driving gloves were the norm rather than the exception.    As was the trend at the time, there was a separate horn ring.  There was also an early nod to safety with a padded center.

These Mercedes steering wheels were basically the same for all W108, W109, W110, W111, W112, W113, and early W114 and W115.    Early cars had a round horn ring, which was changed in the early 60s to a flatter top.   The cars of the 50s had a different design that was similar in concept, but with no padded center and a circular horn ring.   The W100 (600) has a wheel that is a similar design, but not identical.

The standard steering wheel was black (ebony) and had a black center pad with the Mercedes logo and a chrome horn ring.   Up until the mid 60’s it was also possible to order an Ivory coloured steering wheel with a colour matched center pad.   When ordered, the gear stick knob was also Ivory coloured.    This was option code 551.   This option was discontinued  for the updated 1968 models (i.e. the 280s and later 300s).    This was also around the time the steering wheel was revised with a large steering column behind it.   The most obvious difference is the removal of the chrome ring around the horn pad.

The picture below shows an early Finnie with the ivory steering wheel and the round horn ring.  Note the end of the gear stick is also ivory.

The Ivory steering wheel is much more susceptible to age and heat related cracking than the black one.  Both are still available from Mercedes, although at significant cost.   The Ivory wheel is very popular in more recent years and is often added to cars during restoration, especially to vehicles such as the 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet that were never available with this option.   In most cases the gear knob is not changed at the same time, so the difference is quite apparent.     These wheels were only ever available with the center pad in the same colour as the wheel, although I’ve seen many ‘restored’ cars have dyed it the same colour of the seats which I find rather garish.  The photo below shows a 280SE 3.5 Coupe with the correct steering wheel and gear knob.   The flattened top of the horn ring is contrasted with the round one above.  This is also the final version without the chrome ring and the thicker steering column.

Another popular owner change over is to add a Nardi wheel.  Personally I prefer the original wheel, but the Nardi wheel can look good on the W113 roadsters.  Apparently in the USA, some very late W108’s were delivered with the W116 style steering wheel in 1973.