From Reader Sean F, his old car of choice, the Mercedes 770 / 770K of the late 1930s:
It’s a brute of a car (7.7-liter engine!), and heavy (especially when fitted with the armour plating and thick glass required by its most famous owner), but I’d take a slimmed-down non-Hitler version in a heartbeat.
And I’m just a sucker for those swoopy front wheel mudguards, in just about any car of that era.
Over the years I’ve seen so many of these big Mercedes advertised or exhibited as “Hitler’s Personal Car” it leads me to wonder if he got a fleet price deal on them.
It may be something like the inns that advertise, “George Washington Slept Here.”
Hitler flew from city to city in Germany, and when he didn’t, he took his private train, “Amerika”.
Perhaps he borrowed a car in each city.
This ( https://www.supercars.net/blog/1930-mercedes-benz-710-ssk-trossi-roadster/ ) is really the one that I want — the “Count Trossi” 1930 710 SSK with the custom extra swoopy body work. I saw it as it was being restored up here in Essex Mass. OK — so the Count was a ” Reluctant Natzi”. It doesn’t seem to bother the Current Owner ( maybe even more famous ) Ralph Lauren.
When an Australian billionaire wanted to buy one of Adolf’s (verified) Mercs and bring it to Australia, there were street protests and groups demanding it not be allowed into Australia and if it was it should be crushed and melted down.
Then the government stepped in and said it would never be given an import permit anyway because it had asbestos lagging in the exhaust system.
Australia is so F’d up that if you import an old vehicle that is determined to have any sort of asbestos when it hits the docks, they destroy it. They won’t allow it to be sent away for remediation purposes, or sale elsewhere. Old gaskets? That’s all it takes. Poof, gone.
It’s typical Lefty idiocy. That country has significant asbestos deposits. It’s not like it’s some sort of pristine environment.
Yep. Took a while to convince them there was no asbestos in a BMW R1150RT I was importing from the USA. They were “concerned” about the brake pads. 8-0