French title
Chassis no. WDB1260441A073301

- Automotive excellence from Carat Duchatelet
- Built to special order
- Dashboard the epitome of the extravagant Eighties

The '1000 SEC' model name was used by the leading tuners for their most up-market cars, based mainly on the C126-type Mercedes SEC. Legend has it that at the start of the 1980s, a customer from the Middle East ordered a highly-tuned 500 SEL with lots of options from the tuner SGS. When the car was delivered, the customer told Chris Hahn that the car was twice as good as an ordinary 500 SEL and deserved a badge to match, and so the 1000 SEL was born. The same logic was applied to the rare conversions based on the 500 SEC.
Cars like this 1000 SEC, a 500 SEC which was given the D. Arrow treatment by the famous company 'Carat by Duchatelet', based in Liège, which was renowned for its very lavish models based on Mercedes or Rolls-Royce. Carat was on good terms with the German manufacturer and, unlike other tuners, Carat's cars were authorised by Mercedes to keep the three-pointed star. This exceptional 1000 SEC is packed with exclusive options: it has a fridge, a bar with two crystal carafes and matching flutes and glasses, a colour TV and VCR, and a Pioneer radio/cassette player connected to a hi-fi system with an equalizer, while other special Carat equipment such as the wood trim and bodykit set off its luxurious interior. Delivered new in August 1984, it was used by a Saudi businessman in southern France, who kept it for 20 years before selling it to a couple from the area around Cannes. It had then covered 16,000 km. Today, it has less 70,000 km on the clock.
To get into this very exclusive SEC is to enjoy the guarantee of travelling in the extravagant luxury of the 1980s, with the irresistible urge to listen to the greatest hits of the time, making full use of the equalizer, or watching your favourite series on the television, with the windows - with no central pillar - rolled down and the roof open, of course!

Full catalogue and more photos https://www.artcurial.com/en/sale-4315-retromobile-2023-artcurial-motorcars