In the auto world, the Mercedes-Benz SLC of the 1970s and 1980s is considered a bit of a design statement. Almost every car enthusiast admires its generous hips and stylish overall shape. So using it for trivial purposes seems like a terribly bad idea. That’s made even worse when you’re simply dropping it on another design icon, the BMW E46 3 Series.
To this day, most BMW enthusiasts agree that the fourth generation 3 Series still looks great and should be studied more intensively by designers today, to bring out more enthralling and ever-lasting cars. However, the guys from Autoblog had a different opinion about both cars and they decided to pit them against each other, taking the meaning quite literally.
In their latest CarBoom episode, the guys brought along a 1980s US-spec Mercedes-Benz SLC along with a BMW E46 3 Series, 20 used mattresses and a 70-ton crane, all of them out in the Mojave Desert. What does a crane and 20 mattresses have to do with these two cars, you may ask. Well, exactly what you may think: they tested if a car dropped from 120 feet could survive the fall if it landed on said mattresses.
After that, it was time for the final showdown: the Mercedes pitted up against the BMW. Since they had the crane in place, it would’ve been a shame not to test out what happens if you drop a 3,500 lbs old Mercedes on top of an E46 3 Series. The result can be observed in the video below and even though we’d like to say the Bimmer took it like a champ, there’s just nothing you can do against the laws of nature. The two become a sort of twisted sculpture in the end. Enjoy!
