10 replies to this topic

[ERault]

In the 356 Carrera Abarth thread, Adminj gave us a link to his Norisring website. I bookmarked it then, without having much time to explore it. I did today, and I must say it is very nice.

I find there in the 1962 section a picture that some of you might find interesting :

http://www.norisring...e/norframe3.htm

The photo on the right is for sure a 300 SL, but it looks very much like the W194 works cars of 1952 rather than the latter W198 production cars. I have never heard of such a car racing in private hands, and there is what appears to be one, no less than 10 years after his birth !

Can someone confirm this car is the real deal and give some background to the story ?

[Rob Miller]

The 300SL certainly looks like the real deal.

Have a look at the start of the Formula Junior race. Eight cars on the front row. And what a grandstand.

[Rob Semmeling]

A driver named Manfred Pade from Düsseldorf sported a 300 SL as late as 1968!

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Rob Semmeling
A driver named Manfred Pade from Düsseldorf sported a 300 SL as late as 1968!

A 1952 model?

[Rob Semmeling]

No, it was a later roadster model:

[Alan Cox]

Is the driver in the Norisring photo, Hans Schuller, the same guy who found greater fame as a rally co-driver with Edgar Hermann, and went on to win the Safari rally?

[Hugo Boecker]

The car with reg.no LB-UV 35 was raced by Hans Schuller at the 1962 Gaisberg-Hillclimb (#166) In the first heat he turned the car over and demaged it heavy. For the second heat he cut the roof off and raced again. The car was one of the four cars raced in the 52 Carrera. I think it's chassis 0005/52.
In a book about the Gaisberg Hillclimb there are pictures as well as in German mag Auto Motor und Sport.

[Hugo Boecker]

Originally posted by Alan Cox
Is the driver in the Norisring photo, Hans Schuller, the same guy who found greater fame as a rally co-driver with Edgar Hermann, and went on to win the Safari rally?

Yes he is.

[ERault]

Thanks for that, especially the nice story at Gaisberg. Those hillclimbs are full of stories and unusual machinery. It is a pity there are often forgotten.

Any background on how the car escaped the factory ?

[Hugo Boecker]

There are still a lot mystery about it. The car was sold in US and came to Marocco in 53. It was entered for the Marocco 12Hour race at Casablanca #12 Weckerle/Geier. Geier was a Mercedes employee and, I assume, the former GP driver Hans Geier. But the car was a DNA. Via France it found its way to Stuttgart or Leonberg where Schuller raced it.

[Mig007]

I thought Geier never raced again after his horrific crash at Bremgarten, 1935.