cawimmer430
Piston Pioneer
This is a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahnkurier - one of two (2) survivors out of a total of six (6) built. I saw this car on the street and literally ran after it and followed it all the way home. I lost visual contact near the end of the chase but thankfully I knew the street he was turning into was a dead end which meant he must come to a stop there. And I found him!
The owner is a friendly Dutchman. And here's the killer: he has another 1930s Mercedes 5_0K in his garage! This lucky bastard owns two of my most treasured Benzes ever!!! And the second Mercedes he owns is apparently that 500/540K convertible I photographed on the street a few days ago!
Initially he was a bit wary of me. But when I began talking about technical details of this car he opened up from one MB enthusiast to the other. The interesting thing about this car is that it's a 540K but it has the motor of the 500K (5.0 straight-8). On both engines the supercharger can be engaged or disengaged. In N/A form the engine produces 115-horsepower and with the supercharger engaged power jumps up to 180-horses. Top speed was in the region of 160 km/h.
About two years ago there was a Mercedes design exhibition in Munich where another 540K Autobahnkurier was featured. I asked the owner if this was his - it wasn't. The 540K Autobahnkurier featured in that design exhibition belonged to a certain Mr. Keller, an American Mercedes enthusiast with a large collection of MB's in the US. Apparently he was kind enough to ship it over to Europe for this event. So - Wimmer has seen and touched the only remaining two examples of this model in the world!!!
I promised the owner of this Mercedes that I'd bring him a few shots of his car and that hopefully we can go somewhere nice and do an awesome photoshoot. The 500/540K range of Mercedes are to me the most beautiful MB's ever made and one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Just look at this thing!!!
This is history and heritage. This is what makes and defines a luxury brand to me. So, let me just say that Lexus can go take a hike.
Oh, look at the exhausts of this car. Weren't we told the Lexus LS was the first car to have these flat exhausts? I've seen these types of exhausts on 1920s and 1930s Bugatti's and MB's etc. Lexus can go f_ck themselves again.
j/k
Enjoy the pictures. I'm not to happy with their quality because the lighting was really crap and all those stupid signs in the background are so friggin German. This whole god damn "Ordgungsgemäß" thinking by placing a countryside/city full of annoying ass signs pisses me off.
Don't forget to check out the video.
The owner is a friendly Dutchman. And here's the killer: he has another 1930s Mercedes 5_0K in his garage! This lucky bastard owns two of my most treasured Benzes ever!!! And the second Mercedes he owns is apparently that 500/540K convertible I photographed on the street a few days ago!
Initially he was a bit wary of me. But when I began talking about technical details of this car he opened up from one MB enthusiast to the other. The interesting thing about this car is that it's a 540K but it has the motor of the 500K (5.0 straight-8). On both engines the supercharger can be engaged or disengaged. In N/A form the engine produces 115-horsepower and with the supercharger engaged power jumps up to 180-horses. Top speed was in the region of 160 km/h.
About two years ago there was a Mercedes design exhibition in Munich where another 540K Autobahnkurier was featured. I asked the owner if this was his - it wasn't. The 540K Autobahnkurier featured in that design exhibition belonged to a certain Mr. Keller, an American Mercedes enthusiast with a large collection of MB's in the US. Apparently he was kind enough to ship it over to Europe for this event. So - Wimmer has seen and touched the only remaining two examples of this model in the world!!!
I promised the owner of this Mercedes that I'd bring him a few shots of his car and that hopefully we can go somewhere nice and do an awesome photoshoot. The 500/540K range of Mercedes are to me the most beautiful MB's ever made and one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Just look at this thing!!!
This is history and heritage. This is what makes and defines a luxury brand to me. So, let me just say that Lexus can go take a hike.
Oh, look at the exhausts of this car. Weren't we told the Lexus LS was the first car to have these flat exhausts? I've seen these types of exhausts on 1920s and 1930s Bugatti's and MB's etc. Lexus can go f_ck themselves again.
j/kEnjoy the pictures. I'm not to happy with their quality because the lighting was really crap and all those stupid signs in the background are so friggin German. This whole god damn "Ordgungsgemäß" thinking by placing a countryside/city full of annoying ass signs pisses me off.
Don't forget to check out the video.
