Descrizione
1935 Mercedes 500K
Chassis number: 123741
registration: GLAZ229H German.
This is one of the 500k Mercedes rebodied by noted restorer & Mercedes expert the late Franz Prahl. The original Cabriolet C body was discarded & the current special roadster body constucted to the minutest detail with reference to the factory drawings. The result is spectacualr & must have been in period simply the be all & end all of flambuoyant Mercedes coachwork. Some 400 or so miles have been covered since build. The car needless to say is in brand new condition thoughout
General condition,
This car is in completely restored condition and has been done to a high standard, it runs and drives extremely well for it’s type and has no faults evident, The car is believed to have left the factory in November 1935 as a drop head coupe and was subsequently restored in Germany by recognized marque expert Franz Prahl; at this time it was fitted with a reproduction of the special roadster body that was originally available from Mercedes as an option in 1935.
Engine,
Engine number * 123741* running and driving very well, completely rebuilt and correctly setup, specification as supplied in 1935.
Restored to a high standard
Axles and running gear,
Original to car, un-modified and restored to high standard
Wheels and tyres,
Original type to car and in very good condition
Bodywork,
Newly made bodywork to original 1935 Special Roadster drawings,
Restored condition and with perfect Black paint, newly covered cream hood and cream Double Duck Tonneau cover.
Gearbox,
Correct 1935 Mercedes 3 speed gearbox with reverse, completely correct for this vehicle and working correctly.
Interior and seating,
All recovered in matching Cream leather to a very high standard with matching Cream carpets. The dash and instruments are correct and accurate for period and are all working correctly and in good restored condition.
This car is Registered in Germany and listed as 1935 and is fine restored condition, all chrome-work has been renewed and all parts either restored or replaced to make this car look and drive at the top of its class.
It comes with German paperwork
Introduced at the March 1934 Berlin Motor Show, the Mercedes-Benz 500K (or W29 as it was known internally) was the brainchild of technical director Dr Hans Nibel. A former racing driver turned master engineer whose past credits included the mighty 200HP Blitzen Benz and fearsome Mercedes-Benz S / SS / SSK / SSKL series (on which he had collaborated with Ferdinand Porsche), his commitment to a unified design philosophy meant that the marque's fastest road car - the 500K / W29, had a surprising amount in common with its epoch-making 'Silver Arrow' Grand Prix Racer sibling - the W25 (unveiled just a few months earlier). Admittedly poles apart in terms of execution, the two were thus based around low-slung box-section chassis equipped with all-round coil-sprung independent suspension (double-wishbone front / swing-axle rear), high-efficiency hydraulic drum brakes and supercharged straight-eight powerplants.
Ushering in a new generation of extremely luxurious and disarmingly quick tourers capable of sustained high-speed cruising, the 500K was powered by a 5 litre OHV engine. Tuned for torque rather than horsepower, it was quoted as developing a lazy 100bhp @ 3, 200rpm in normally aspirated form but an altogether more spirited 160bhp with its double-vane Roots type blower engaged (a process which involved the driver depressing the accelerator pedal beyond a set pressure point). Given that the later 540K was widely credited with a force fed 180bhp and 318lbft of torque, it seems likely that peak torque was approximately 300lbft (though, official figures remain frustratingly elusive).
Fed by a double updraught carburettor of in-house manufacture, the towering M24 straight-eight was allied to a robust three-speed manual gearbox . Impressed by the model's excellent roadholding and handling not to mention its 100mph top speed, Autocar magazine summed-up the 500K as "a master car for the very few". Praising its refinement, the publication also commented that "without the supercharger this is a quiet, docile carriage, the acceleration from low speeds being then quite mild. It will amble around town and along by-ways with scarcely a hint of its latent performance. Bring in the supercharger and it becomes another machine, with fierce acceleration".
Benefiting from power assistance, the W29's suitably large four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes gave occupants a more than sporting chance of avoiding contact with slower vehicles (very few road cars could reach 100mph in 1934), while the provision of transverse-mounted coil-springs to the base of the rear swing-axle assembly brought a welcome extra dose of stability. Built at Mercedes-Benz's Unterturkheim plant (more commonly associated with the company's research and development activities) to exceptionally high standards, the 500K could be had with a wide variety of open and closed bodystyles courtesy of factory coachbuilders Sindelfingen. Only listed for two years total 500K production has been put at between 342 and 354 units.
Arriving from Horch in September 1932, Herman Ahrens was tasked with heading-up Mercedes- Benz's Sonderwagen (Special Vehicles) division. A precocious talent, the twenty-eight year old set about imbuing his new employer's flagship models with a stylistic presence to match their technological sophistication. Taking full advantage of the two wheelbase lengths (Normal: 3290mm /
Short: 2980mm) and three chassis types that underpinned the W29, Ahrens created a series of designs so striking that less than ten percent of buyers opted for non-Sindelfingen coachwork.
According to its accompanying copy factory commission book extract, the order for this particular example - chassis number 123741 - was placed on November 1st 1935. Interestingly, another piece of paperwork on file suggests that the car was first owned by Lt. Colonel Stancomb and issued with the London registration number 'HXM 325' and with ‘Special Roadster’ coachwork (one of its sister 500Ks - chassis number 123737 - being dispatched to the Marquis de Portago and road registered as 'GC 5149'). Resident in America by 1938, a contemporaneous photocopied Passenger Vehicle Registration Renewal Stub lists the Mercedes-Benz as belonging to Mark Stevens of Maple Avenue, Scotia, New York. Passing to Robert Saunders of Concord, Massachusetts many years later, the four- seater had its engine overhauled by renowned restorer M. L. Bud Cohn of Los Angeles, California during 1971. Despite Mr Saunders' varied attempts at refurbishment, chassis 123741 was complete but somewhat careworn by the time it entered the previous owner’s collection prior to its full restoration & rebody by Marque specialist Franz Prahl.
