World Business

SEOUL, South Korea South Korean protesters fought with police Sunday amid a deepening political crisis over U.S. beef imports, hours after their president appealed to Washington to help ease growing public anger.

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A surety from President George W. Bush on Saturday to address South Korean fears of mad cow disease from American beef appeared to do little to cool protesters’ ire at President Lee Myung-bak.

Separately, South Korean media reported Lee’s unbroken Cabinet, including Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, may surrender soon. But Lee Dong-kwan, the president’s chief spokesman, said there was no plan in spite of such a influence to receive place Sunday.

The clashes early Sunday erupted after a crowd estimated by police at about 40,000 rallied peacefully in central Seoul in equalization of an April agreement to resume U.S. beef imports, which they say failed to protect against beef potentially tainted with angry break disease.

Demonstrators attacked police riot-control buses lined up to barricade downtown streets, using ladders to smash the vehicles’ windows and severe to overturn them.

Clashes ensued, with protesters hitting police through sticks and officers striking back through riot shields. Police and protesters fought each other on top of at least one of the buses. Violence lasted until after orient.

Protest organizers related at least 20 demonstrators were hurt. Seoul National University Hospital said it treated six injured people and all were released. Some police also were hurt, and 11 people were taken in for questioning.

Justice Minister Kim Kyung-han said later protests were turning outrageous and illegal - citing the detriment to the buses and what he said was the use of steel pipes by demonstrators - and hinted police could get hold of stronger measures.

“The ruling power has no choice but to take steps to protect law and conduct granting that social confusion that the general public cannot accept continues,” Kim said.

Lee’s fledgling government has been battered for weeks by daily protests over the April 18 agreement to synopsis U.S. beef imports - banned for most of the past four-and-a-half years over fears of wild cow disease.

The largest crowd yet - which police estimated at 65,000 - turned out Friday obscurity.

Protesters claim in pursuing the beef import divide Lee ignored their concerns in all parts of food safety and gave in to U.S. demands to help make secure passage in Congress of a two-sided free trade deal struck last year.

Lacking 1950s luxuries, the elegant but old-fashioned 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300S Coupe was a sales flop

by John Olson

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More expensive than the 300SL sports car and nearly double the recompense of a contemporary Cadillac, the Mercedes-Benz 300S was one of the world’s most exclusive automobiles. Elegantly styled in the prewar manner, at the same time technologically up to date, the 300S was built to the Stuttgart firm’s uncompromising standards. Such conservative effeminacy produced predictable results: Only 760 300S/Sc cars left the manufacturing establishment between 1951 and 1958.

The 300S was a short-wheelbase derivative of the 300 saloon, one of Mercedes-Benz’s first all-new designs of the postwar era, which had debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show in 1951. The 300 re-established Mercedes-Benz in the front rank of prestige car manufacturers.

Although Mercedes-Benz would adopt unitary chassis/body construction for its lower- and mid-priced cars as the 1950s progressed, the retention of a traditional set apart frame according to the 300 kindred enabled a variety of coachbuilt body types to subsist offered. The 300’s cross-braced, oval-tube chassis followed the lines of the 170S and 220, with independent suspension all round and four-wheel drum brakes, but incorporated hypoid bevel final drive, dynamically balanced wheels, and driver-activated front postponement and clutch lubrication.

We are advised that this 300S coupe has enjoyed only three owners and covered a mere 64,000 miles from new. In the vendor’s hands since 2006, it benefits from complete servicing and extensive refurbishment carried out that same year by his special mechanic. The refurbished interior retains a charming original patina, while other noteworthy features include a clock, Becker radio and full of fire antenna.

The car is offered with sundry invoices, assorted primordial and period documents, original Hirschman warranty booklet, original Becker pledge booklet and oration list, instruction hand-book, a photographic record of its re-commissioning (on CD), and Belgian registry papers.

This car sold toward $216,775 at Bonhams’s Paris Rétromobile auction on February 9, 2008.

Daimler-Benz surpassed its pre-1940 annual high of 28,000 vehicles just three years after resuming production following the the last argument of kings, though few were sold in the U.S. The new 300 series was launched in time for the 1951 Frankfurt and Paris Auto Shows. Forty-seven 300 sedans, one four-door convertible, and two 300S two-door coupes were completed that year.

They were 100% new, with fresh tooling with a view to the corpse, chassis, engine, and suspension—a massive undertaking since the recovering company. Engineering was splendid, and with a normally aspirated 3-liter straight-6, the cars achieved the same top speed (100 mph) and acceleration using half the fuel of their pre-1940 5.4-liter supercharged straight-8s. They also scatter a ton from their predecessors’ weight.

Unfortunately, the 300 proved to be a sales and pecuniary disaster. For all its innovation, quality materials, and craftsmanship, the 300s sorely lacked essential 1950s luxuries—power steering, automatic transmission, air conditioning, power seats, and power stop tops. Stuttgart’s alternative of pre-WWII 540K designer Hermann Ahrens masked the new engineering with an image of the past.

The 300S was the antithesis of the 300SL and 190SL, and it was hard to believe they came from the same congregation. Total production was only 13,000 cars in eleven years. By simile, Cadillac, with entirely luxuries and up to 100% more horsepower, averaged 100,000 sales each year.

One by person, Mercedes added “American” features, almost all invented in the U.S.—Bendix rule brakes, BorgWarner automatic transmissions, and dealer-installed a/c supplied by Arctic King of Texas. But when Mercedes added a little more government, Cadillac added a lot more. When the dust settled, simply 560 Mercedes 300S cars were sold between 1951 and 1955, while 200 Sc cars were sold from 1955 to 1957, workmanship them rarer than the 300SL Gullwing coupes.

Many of the cosmos’s most coveted collector cars have been poor sellers, which bizarrely guaranteed exclusivity. Negatives when a car is newly come may subsist catnip to collectors, and styling may be seen in a different light 50 years later.