MERCEDES-BENZ T80 full historical details and stories

This car is the ultimate manifestation of speed as envisioned at the height of Nazi power in Germany.

The monstrous six-wheeler was a pet project of racing driver Hans Stuck, who wanted Germany to assert its engineering supremacy by grabbing the world land speed record. Stuck had the ear of Adolf Hitler, who eagerly gave the venture state backing. The dream team of constructor Mercedes-Benz and designer Ferdinand Porsche were, by 1937, hard at work on what became the T80.

At the heart of the six-wheeler chassis was a vast 2,716ci (44,500cc) V12 engine—a Mercedes aero engine more usually found in the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter plane.  

Only, in this incarnation, power was doubled to a projected 3,000bhp, using a fuel mixture of mostly alcohol. The four rear wheels were all driven using a “slipping clutch” system, instead of a gearbox, to match them to engine power at 93mph (150kph).  The steel spaceframe, meanwhile, was covered in a startling, winged body, complete with faired-in cockpit, and achieved an incredible drag coefficient of just 0.18.  During the design process, the target speed rose from 342 to 373mph (550 to 600kph), and ultimately to 435mph (700kph), as the record was pushed higher by British rivals George Eyston and John Cobb. Test runs in October 1939 revealed that the T80 needed more development work. The record run was postponed, permanently, by the onset of war.