Hoax or reality? Blitzen Benz pump house find

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PreWarCar.com likes to get in touch with Australian readers who have the time and means to travel the outback.

Report by Jeroen Booij:
Oh, how often do we have to hear that all the good barn finds have been snatched up by now? Sure, they get harder to find but there are still some automotive gems to be rediscovered.  Yesterday a message came in triggering all of our senses. It’s the story of an unknown Blitzen Benz that could survive in the Australian outback. Yep, that’s the chain-driven, 21.5-litre, 200+km/h land speed record car. In witty prose the writer tells that he got in touch with a farmer back in 1974 (yes, that's forty years ago, but still...):

“As per usual on a hot summer day he sat down and told us his stories of old vehicles. You know, the usual stuff of T-Fords, Overlanders, Dodges and Willys. He told us of a time when there was racing on the dustpans around his town when someone brought up a real monster Mercedes-Benz (sic) racing car. They tried to race it, but being so large and heavy all it did was make a lot of dust and noise. He rattled on for quite a time about this huge car and to be quite honest I had never even heard of it and I certainly did not know they made cars that big. The old guy then dropped a bombshell: ‘Do you want to see it?’”

“Apparently the car was abandoned and just left there to rust for some years. Some while later it was moved and placed by a dam and the motor was connected to a pump. The old guy then gave quite precise instructions as to where to find it. An ‘expedition’ of one motorcyclist went off to find it some weeks later, but he returned and said that he just could not find it. The feeling was that it was just a ‘wild goose chase’. But it did not end there. We did verify that the Benz did come to Australia and it did not return. Apparently the old guy came by again a year or so later and asked if the Benz was found and he was surprised that it wasn’t. He gave further instructions. But at that stage we moved on to other things. Is the Blitzen Benz still there? I have heard nothing either to suggest that it is or isn’t.”

Love it. But could it be true, too? We have heard stranger stories of an Auto Union C-type in an East German scrapyard or a Mercedes-Benz 540K ‘Aktion P’ in deepest Russia… We asked Mercedes-Benz Classic, who confirm six Blitzen Benzes have been built. One of them is owned by MB themselves; another is in a European collection while a third survivor has been commisioned as a four-seater. A fourth car in an American collection is in fact a recreation built around an original engine and some other parts. “Finding one of these cars now would be sensational”, M-B Classic's spokesman adds. We also asked Blitzen Benz historian Karl Ludvigsen, who said: “Off top of my head I don't recall one of these Benzes in Australia. However there is one car that went to Spain whose whereabouts is, as far as I know, unknown. It might have made the trip Down Under.”  There you go.

Could one of the world’s more remote places be hiding one of the world’s best kept motoring secrets? PreWarCar likes to hear from readers who have the time to travel the outback. Of course you're welcome to post your comments. If you like to to contact us directly use [email protected].

(photo courtesy Daimler AG)

Originally published on February 24, 2014!

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