[more to follow as I uncover my records]
Well, I finally (30 Mar 01) located my 1950s files and there are great surprises in
store; the files are a bit damp but are drying and I will add fantastic photos as soon
as they dry and my cranky server upload allows.
[Repeated and revised from the main page:] In early 1956, I had the
incredible fortune to drive the 1928 SS tourer that was featured in the Museum of
Modern Art (along with the famed Movado watch) as a supreme example of pure
functional beauty. It was quite an adventure and I've written it up and will add
lots more info for M-B enthusiasts as I get the time and inclination. The car was
all burgundy with crimson piping and spokes and an off-white head (top) [my memory
on some of this was 'way off!] and I finally found my bureau-top photo (missing since
the last move) 07 Jan 01, and it's again missing, as is the post I made of it; instead, I
located the original negatives and had prints and scans made:
Allston Boyer and his car in 1956.
[Photo ca. Feb 56 by and © 1956/2003 - S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved]
(Thumbnail image - click on photo for much larger image.)
(The missing Kodacolor print, marked that it was printed "Week Ending Mar. 3, 1956"
had changed sadly over the years; that body paint was a true, rich burgundy
and, if the crimson piping shows, I can't see it!)
{The negatives held up much better and prints made from them are fairly true
to what I remember.}
Incidentally, that tubular factory front bumper is set wrong; the rearward sweep of
the ends should be absolutely horizontal.
Here's me with the car:
SB,III and Boyer's car in 1956.
[Photo ca. Feb 56 by and © 1956/2003 - S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved]
(Thumbnail iage - click on photo for much larger image.)
There are about a dozen more color photos scanned but not yet posted, plus about a
dozen highly-detailed B&W shots yet to be scanned.
After those are done, there are about a dozen B&W photos of a magnificent SSK
roadster sitting alongside Bill Frick's speed shop in Freeport (Long Island), New York,
and two of a 540K at the curb in front.
Stay tuned; these and even more are coming soon!
1928 Mercedes-Benz Type S 36/250 tourer (formerly belonging to famed
actor Peter Ustinov) at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Oct 98:
[Body Number 35952, Chassis Number 40637, Engine Number 71808]
[Photos Oct 98 by and © 2000 - S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved]
Lighting and access were pretty awful and I tried both ambient and flash to little
avail; this is what you get.
However, note also that this car, although documented as a 1928, has the older
radiator shell with the two uncircled stars embossed on either side of the crease.
Ca. 14 Jul 01, on an auction site (Adamstown
Antique Gallery), I found this beauty for sale:
[Thumbnail image; click on photo for larger image.]
She was described (in 1999) thusly: "Biggest sale of the day was this
1933 Mercedes-Benz 380 K with coachwork by Erdmann & Rossi,
which sold for $962,500{!}. The one-off supercharged Mercedes was
recently shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance." {emphases mine}.
On that same Adamstown site, I ran across this set of views of an M-B 770K tourer
model listed as "TIP CO. MERCEDES FOR A. HITLER {sic} W/ 3 FIGURES - $1600.00"!
[Thumbnail image; click on photo for larger image.]
No size/scale or date was given.
The Smithsonian Institution's Store
Catalogue offered a fantastic summer discount on this gem and it burned a hole
in my pocket; it's catalogued as a 1927 "630K" but is clearly a "K"
dual-cowled sports tourer with (ostensibly) a 6.3l engine - I got a new set of close-up
lenses in the same post and had to try them without setting up good lighting:
(28 Aug 03 photos by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The model measures 11" (28cm) overall and is advertised as being at 1:18 scale:
The detail is simply staggering, the bi-fold hood tops and sides are double hinged, the
front wheels turn with the steering wheel, the doors open, as does the trunk lid:
Even the dash, wheel, shift, and brake, and pedals and the windshield are fully
detailed!
(28 Aug 03 photos by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
(I'll have to reshoot some of these.)
As noted on the first page, the K model differed from the succeeding S model primarily
only in height, but WHAT a huge difference a few silly millimeters (millimetres)
make! Some 146mm (5¾"), if this K model is accurate! Note also
that the running board is about even with the wheel centers and that the frame box
is very deep. Even though the rear axle is underslung, as on the S/SS-series,
the car is simply huge; a friend's K tourer was almost ungainly. By simply
lowering the S drastically, the very same car became one of the sexiest ever designed.
This is a good a place as any to illustrate the relative heights of the hood/bonnet side
panels above the exhaust pipes on the K, S, and SS {SSK in this particular case}
models (left-to-right):
(14 Sep 03 photomontage by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Here's a similar montage with a real K-engined 24/100/140 and a different SS:
(24 Nov 03 photomontage by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Individual images credited elsewhere on these Mercedes pages.]
If you look at the comparison photos carefully, you can also make out the the
pre-merger stars stamped on either side of the crease in the K and S radiator shells
and the blue-and-white M-B badge centered on the crease on the SS. You can
also see how the hinge line matches the top of the front fender on the S and is higher
on the SS.
Under the K model's right running board, if you look carefully under the right lighting,
you can make out the Chinese manufacturer's name - "RICKO".
I took an even-closer shot of the radiator top to better show the accurately-modeled
two pre-merger Mercedes stars stamped in the front of the shell and the indentation
in the long star mounting shaft which represents the vertical slot that holds the
Moto-Meter temperature gauge:
(08 Sep 03 photo by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
See also a real K, below.
The Smithsonian also offers similar 1:18 models of a 1936 500K and of the 1955
300S, but not by Ricko.
(05 Dec 05)
Other M-B Survivors of Note (to me).
Here is where I hoped to show the 320K{?} convertible I almost bought (the one that
got away) and 380K and 540K and 770K and such.
For starters, a mutual friend put me on to neighbor and fellow
Long Island Motor Parkwayenthusiast Roy Jaffe's magnificent 1936 Mercedes-
Benz 540K Special Cabriolet C:
(Photos courtesy, and by kind permission, of H. R. Jaffe - all rights reserved)
"She was custom built by Sindelfingen, the Daimler-Benz factory coachbuilder, for
William A.M. Burden, a great, great, grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Both Mr.
Burden and Daimler-Benz authenticated the car with documentation and factory
photographs." Jaffe "purchased the car from the second owner in l963".
"The car was almost wholly intact, but missing one shock - the other was broken.
After reading Hemmings for 20 years, {he}
finally found an ad for these extremely rare shocks." The car was restored in
1993 and has received many awards since and has been featured in many magazine
articles.
On 17/18 Sep 03, I finally turned up many of the old photos I took of Mercedes-Benz
cars in the '50s and '60s; some of the photos and accompanying ancient files were
damp and musty but you shouldn't smell those that follow. Unfortunately, I did
NOT find the really great, heavily-documented shots of the 1928 ex-D. Cameron Peck/
Sidney Brodie/Alston Boyer/Museum of Modern Art SS tourer I once drove (save one),
nor of similar coverage of other S and SS cars. I did, however, find the negs for
those and others and have posted them to a Mercedes
Continuation page 2. Most of these photos have been cropped to save
bandwidth (except where noted). Provenance is given where and as known.
I also found my original copy of the Museum of Modern Art's catalog, "8
Automobiles - An exhibition concerned with the esthetics of motorcar design,
at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, autumn 1951", featuring D. Cameron Peck's
SS tourer as the first car* (which they mis-state as a 1930), but the catalog is
covered by copyright.
-
[* - the others were: (2) a 1949 Cisitalia by Pinin, Farina, (3) a 1939 razor-edge
Bentley by James Young, (4) a swoopy tear-drop 1939 Talbot by Figoni and Falaschi,
(5) a 1951 Willys-Overland Jeep (NOT the WWII classic), (6) a 1937 Cord by Auburn-
Cord-Duesenberg, (7) a 1948 MG TC, and (8) a 1941 Lincoln Continental.
Interesting; of eight cars, three had custom bodies and five had works bodies]
Let's start with that one photo of "my" SS tourer, a page taken from the July 1953
issue of the old TRUE Magazine, plus a pencil sketch I made from that fabulous
Alexandre Georges color photo (shot when Sid Brodie owned the car) and a pen
drawing I made on 04 Apr 1955:
(Image from the collection of S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
(Ca. 1955 sketch by and © 2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
(04 Apr 1955 drawing by and © 1955/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Much as I love the works SS tourer, especially the Boyer/MMA car shown
above, the lower S model pleases me even more as noted herein and
elsewhere on these pages; just for the fun of it, I turned the
Berlinerwerke Art Dep't. loose with an image processor and came up
with an S version of the Boyer/MMA car (with the original sketch shown
for comparison:
(03 Aug 08)
[Ca. 1955 SS sketch (left) by and © 2003 and
03 Aug 2008 so-gennant 'S' version by and © 2008
S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Click on thumbnailed right image for larger picture]
Ach, MEHR besser!
At the nostalgia running of antique cars at the Vanderbilt Cup race at Roosevelt
Raceway on 19 Jun 1960, I took photos of three M-B cars in the paddock area, the
1923 Mercedes Indy racer, a huge-bumpered white SS tourer (which now seems to
be a huge coupé) and a small '30s drophead coupé:
(19 Jun 60 photos by and © 1960/2003 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
Those last two may well be of that 320K I'd turned down; it was in a private garage
in Garden City (just west of Roosevelt Raceway) and had a removable hardtop in
place at the time and a removable rag top which was hanging from the garage rafters
in the extended position, replete with ribs, irons, and base!
That white SS tourer-cum-coupé is almost certainly NOT C. S. Schaub's
1928 Cadogan-bodied car (from Apex, North Carolina, back then) or one almost
identical to it. Here's Schaub's photo of his car, which he sent me on 08 Jun
1957, together with photos of his ex-Count Trossi 1931 SSK, later the Pebble Beach
concours winner, and his ex-Nürnbergring/Brooklands GP SS (the latter taken in
England):
(C. S. Schaub photos from the collection (of S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
My old notes indicate that the Schaub tourer was destroyed in the terrible fire at
Charlie Stich's shop (wherever THAT was). I was informed on 13 Nov 03 that
the huge-bumpered so-called tourer seems to be a coupé, although the lower cowl
"swoop" seems the same, and that the "320K" is probably a 290 and that neither the
290 or the 320 used the suffix "K" for their short-chassis ("Kurz") versions.
Returning from a Sep 1988 auto trip to Newfoundland and Labrador via Cleveland, I
took this photo of a 540K in the the
Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society at
Case Western Reserve University:
Elsewhere I have some of the M-B works photos but I found a slew of old, damp,
fading works prints, mostly penciled "Moffat" on the back, and so here they
are, thumbnailed (click on them for larger images):
(Images from the collection (now) of S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images - click on the pictures for larger images.]
That last is a giant "24/100/140" model (NOT a "K", works
caption notwithstanding), bodied by Saoutchik (NOT "Saontchik");
notice how, while the basic lines are similar to those of an S or
SS, it is so very much higher.
Lastly, I ran across a photo of an undated copy of an article I wrote for the CCCA
newsletter, ca. 1955, which I excerpt here:
(Ca. 1955 image from the collection (now) of S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on the picture for a larger image.]
1924 MERCEDES BENZ Type 24/100/140
Talk about a survivor! Ca. 15 Apr 2004, I ran across photos of a model 24
once owned my former colleague, Ashley Sametz, who took and furnished these
photos of his car ca. 20 Sep 1971, describing it as "a rare, one of a kind, find.
1924 Mercedes Benz, model 24-100/140 supercharged. Aluminum body
by Fleetwood. Double cowl, double windshield, 4 door touring.
Engine rebuilt, body partially restored.":
(1971 photos by A. Sametz, from the collection of S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images - click on the pictures for larger images.]
This car is somewhat like the Smithsonian model except that it has a dual
windscreen, full-height belt line, four full doors, artillery wheels, storage lockers
in the kick plates, and no trunk or bumpers. ODD!
It also lacks outside exhaust down pipes!
You can REALLY see the star stamped in the right front of the radiator shell in
that last photo. Also note the different placement of the dual windscreen
on this car vs. that on the Saoutchik-bodied K in the Moffat/works photo above.
Ash also furnished a full specifications sheet, which has been transcribed on the
succeeding page.
However, this car is NOT a K model; see
Works History of the Type 24-100/140 and K on M-B continuation page 3.
MERCEDES BENZ BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Chronik der Mercedes-Benz Fahrzeuge und Motoren", Verlag Cantz
1956, Stuttgart-Bad Canbstatt (DBAG's own story in words and pictures, together
with the official DB list of types of cars and their dates, HP, names, and cylinders).
Ca. 1960, a New York friend of my father, W. R. Nitske, wrote a history booklet,
"The Complete Mercedes Story" about M-B, in 8½" x 11" format,
~¼" thick, with a deep red cover; my copy has not yet turned up. The
1896 Daimler poster, "Bauprogamme im Jahre 1896" (1896 Product Catalog)
may well have been on the front cover or as the frontispiece.
David ("Bunty") Scott-Moncrieff wrote a fabulous and definitive history ca. 1965-70,
Three-Pointed Star, which, along with several other MB references, I
have not yet unpacked.
"Mercedes - Where the name came from?", Daimler-Benz AG, 1986.
"SS Mercedes" (Salon), Road & Track, Oct 1953, pp. 17-20, with
great Cheseborough photos of the Brodie tourer.
"Mercedes SSK", Road & Track, no date but ca.1953, pp. 24-25, 41
(with engine cross-section).
"A Shining Star", Sports Cars Illustrated, Nov 1955, pp. 51-54 (great
photos of restoration of an SS drophead coupé, one of only three left at the time -
sure looks like an S to me).
Do you think Daimler Benz will ever forgive me for this spoof
on my Z-scale (1:220) model
railroad?
Ooops! This isn't what's meant by Break a leg
(Hals- und Beinbruch) !
Mercerized Bents, Inc.
Fine Imported German Bridge Bents -
Guaranteed to Hold a Lustrous Finish
Stay tuned!
[For those interested in the Chrysler side as well,
see my Chrysler page, et seq.
(with the Walter P. Chrysler story).]
Cyclops fans; see Cyclops on my Automotive page!
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
=
of this series of Mercedes-Benz pages.
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2008
- All rights reserved.
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