A Welsh car enthusiast and businessman is turning back the clock at this week’s international Goodwood Festival of Speed.
While a lot of attention will be focused on the rare and rapid cars at Goodwood and climbing its famous hill against the clock in the Moving Motor Show, for Mark Cosovich it is an opportunity to show his skills in restoration and the introduction of an extremely high quality toolkit for Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts.
His company, W123, is well known on the international scene and he completes extensive renovations at his Swansea premises for clients from around the world, but he is less well-known in Wales. Yet, with a project list extending over six months and work coming in all the time, it is also one of the most successful businesses of its type in the UK.
W123 takes its name from the Mercedes-Benz saloon and estate model series which he started restoring many years ago but which became a business entity in its own right in November 2012 after a long time as regional secretary for the MB owners’ club.
Mark (right) employs a small team of highly skilled craftsmen at his workshops outside Swansea and using Welsh specialists for certain aspects of a restoration he will do a complete chassis to concours condition project in a few months with prices from £30,000 upwards depending on what’s required. Only genuine MB parts are used in each restoration and he sources these from UK and foreign suppliers and this gave him the idea of creating the enthusiasts specialist toolkit (below) by Stahlwille and costing about £1,500. This is the first bespoke toolkit for MB owners and features immensely strong but very lightweight pliers, screwdrivers, spanners, wrenches and sockets as used in the factory for generations.
Once each renovated car is completed, it undergoes a thorough pre-delivery inspection by Mercedes-Benz Swansea just as every new model gets and it is given a 12months warranty, just as they had when they left the factory up to 30 years ago. It is believed to be the only such PDI and warranty of a used classic MB on the market.
Mark said, “I like to think we offer a unique service for the classic W123 models and selected other models and where ever possible we use specialist services we have in South Wales.
“We have done work for clients around the world and even Mercedes-Benz has asked us to assist them with projects of a highly specialist nature such as creating a replica of the 280E which won the 1977 London to Sydney classic and was entered into last year’s London to Cape Town classic rally.”
The car he will be taking to Goodwood is a 1971 280SL Pagoda sports car, thought to be the last right hand drive model made and costing twice as much as a Jaguar E-Type when launched, and which he fully restored this year and now worth about £75,000. Show condition models are fetching over £100,000.
