Mercedes-Benz racing car transporter, 1955

From the early days of motorsport until the early 1930s, it was common practice to drive the racing cars to the venue on their own power. It was only from the beginning of the Silver Arrow era in 1934 that the precious cars were transported to the racetrack by truck. Of course, this stood in the way of fast transport to the destination or equally fast return transport to the factory for the purpose of repair or overhaul, and so the idea of building a racing car express transporter based on a high-performance passenger car was born in Untertürkheim as early as 1924.

30 years after the first realisation, this idea was taken up again, and so the racing department designed another racing car express transporter at the beginning of 1955. In contrast to the vehicle used in 1924, in which a chassis from the Mercedes 24/100/140 PS passenger car model was merely fitted with a ramp for loading and transport, this time a completely new, futuristic-looking design was created, which also used some existing components from the passenger car range.

The frame came from the Mercedes 300 or 300 S, the engine from the 300 SL, the doors and windscreen from the Mercedes 180. The futuristic-looking body with the unusually large overhangs – especially at the front axle – was built by the body and vehicle construction company Robert Friess KG, which was based in Malmsheim not far from Stuttgart and also completed the vehicle in April 1955. The more than respectable top speed of almost 170 km/h and the imposing appearance caused a sensation wherever the unusual dark blue painted vehicle appeared.

The exotic racing transporter made its first public appearance on 22 May 1955 at the European Grand Prix in Monaco and a week later at the International Eifel Race at the Nürburgring. From this point onwards, it was used for numerous races in the Formula 1 World Championship and the Sports Car World Championship, finally for the Targa Florio in Sicily – the last race in which Mercedes-Benz competed before leaving motorsport.

The vehicle was then used for a few more years at exhibitions, mainly in the USA, before returning to the testing department, where it was still used to transport historic racing cars to exhibitions and driving events, and was scrapped in 1967. More than 30 years later, the spectacular vehicle was painstakingly rebuilt true to the original on behalf of the Mercedes-Benz vehicle collection on the basis of existing archive documents and has since made numerous appearances at exhibitions and driving events.