1941 340 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

sdruger44 · #1 06-23-2006, 06:55 AM

CLICK HERE

I've been drooling over this car ever since it was on ebay a few months ago. After several email exchanges with the seller ( back when it was on ebay, and now on a Polish auction site.. I speak the language so I might as well put it to use) I can say with 100% certainty that the story of the car is pure fiction, but it's still one hell of a sweet ride.

BTW... converted the USD the price is $146,368.78

Snibble · #2 06-23-2006, 08:45 AM

Very nice car! I wonder how they brought it back from Russia?

Tomguy · #3 06-23-2006, 09:13 AM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ebay.com%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll%3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D4619451323%26fvi %3D1&item=4619451323

My question is: Why can't this car find a good home, and/or why is it that every time it's sold, they use the EXACT same pictures? This is the 3rd auction for it in about 6 months I believe.

sdruger44 · #4 06-23-2006, 12:22 PM

Snibble; Most likely it wasn't in Russia at all. Many German officers stationed in occupied Poland had these as ground transportation. After the war they were left behind. You'd be surprised how many MB's and BMW's are still sitting in barns, untouched since 1945.

And if it did come from Russia there are 2 ways of getting it into Poland. The first is to do all the paperwork, file all the permits, wait a few months, etc....

The second is to give the customs agent on the boarder a couple hundred $$ at the checkpoint. Yeah, it still works that way

Tomguy · #5 06-23-2006, 12:37 PM

sdruger44: My question would be more of "How did it get to Poland so soon after being in Virginia" It is the EXACT same car - or at least it has the EXACT same pictures of it in this auction.

sdruger44 · #6 06-23-2006, 12:54 PM

The car has NEVER been stateside, and given the questionability of the auctions it most likely never will. A lot of German collectors have purchased some very nice cars from Poland in recent years, so it will most likely end up back home.

Jim B. · #7 06-23-2006, 01:06 PM

The car was discussed here before, I started a thread on it, according to the description, it was a kind of a barn find, supposedly, a veteran of the Stalingrad battle, war booty, 353km on it, first on ebay, then ebay Germany, now here!!

Actually it appears to be an authentic authentic survivor, and a fairly rare model.

There actually was a Lt. General Martin Fiebig, who was in charge of relief efforts (unsuccessful) as a Luftwaffe General who was in charge of efforts to provide relief supplies by air to the trapped 6th army of Field Marshall Paulus, which surrendered in 1943. Fiebig was handed over to the Yugoslavians who hanged him in 1947, finding him guilty of war crimes surrounding the carpet bombing of Belgrade in May 1941. Makes for an interesting history.

No books and records but probably the DB historical archives could provide information on the car. The car's identification plate is still affixed to it, complete with Nazi insignia. I would love to inspect it in person.

Hard to imagine anyone in Poland hankering to own a Nazi relic like this one.

I hope it gets restored and ends up in a museum.

Jim B. · #8 06-23-2006, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdruger44

Snibble; Most likely it wasn't in Russia at all. Many German officers stationed in occupied Poland had these as ground transportation. After the war they were left behind. You'd be surprised how many MB's and BMW's are still sitting in barns, untouched since 1945.

And if it did come from Russia there are 2 ways of getting it into Poland. The first is to do all the paperwork, file all the permits, wait a few months, etc....

The second is to give the customs agent on the boarder a couple hundred $$ at the checkpoint. Yeah, it still works that way

You are probably right, but it is harder than it was.

When Hitler and Stalin signed the non -aggression pact in 1939, Hitler presented Stalin with a lovely new 540K cabrio.

However, Stalin believed it Western and decadent and gave it to one of his Generals. It was passed on to a son of the General's, and discovered there in 1962 at his dacha in the South of Russia, in amazingly good condition.
A Swedish photographer bought it and took it Sweden, where it was featured in one of his coffee table photography books.

When the Russian authorities learned that this car escaped Russia in this manner the rules concerning the export of classic cars tightened up considerably, so now it would be much more difficult to do this.

I haven't heard much about this particular 540K though, I wonder where it is now. That would be one to see.

Dee8go · #9 06-23-2006, 03:52 PM

That is really an interesting story. The only thing better than owning a car like that would be having a car like that with a story like that to go along with it.

I can't imagine how anything as valuable as an MB could survive the economically tough times of post WWII Europe unscathed.

sdruger44 · #10 06-23-2006, 06:29 PM

As we all know the Germans are meticulous record keepers and there are confirmed records of this car in the Bundesarchiv, but they refuse to release them. I exchanged several emails with them, but I just think my German isn't up to par, and I'm not familiar with the laws. If anyone here is fluent in German and has some free time on their hands it would be great to find out the history of the car.

Dee8go: You'd really be surprised how many cars survived in barns, totally untouched. Many in Poland and Ukraine, less so in the rest of the Soviet Block. Sadly, a lot of them didn't survive and were parted out. It's not uncommon to see old tractors and other farm vehicles from the 50's and 60's with adapted pre-WWII large displacement Mercedes or BMW engines. It's sad, but people had do with what they had to survive.

mercmad6.3 · #11 06-23-2006, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim B.

You are probably right, but it is harder than it was.

When Hitler and Stalin signed the non -aggression pact in 1939, Hitler presented Stalin with a lovely new 540K cabrio.

However, Stalin believed it Western and decadent and gave it to one of his Generals. It was passed on to a son of the General's, and discovered there in 1962 at his dacha in the South of Russia, in amazingly good condition.
A Swedish photographer bought it and took it Sweden, where it was featured in one of his coffee table photography books.

When the Russian authorities learned that this car escaped Russia in this manner the rules concerning the export of classic cars tightened up considerably, so now it would be much more difficult to do this.

I haven't heard much about this particular 540K though, I wonder where it is now. That would be one to see.

The Stalin car was in Australia in the 1980's .The owner imported it here and attempted to pass it off as only being wirth $50,000 AUD ,Of course it was siezed and sold at Auction for around $200,000.I'm not sure off hand where it went but it's a famous car and is well documented as are ALL the classic Mercs.For a fee of 100 euros you can access the file (hand written) for most of the prewar cars.Some of the files have been lost in WW2 but many still survive.Buying and selling cars into and out Russia is dead easy,the Soviet union collaped in 1990 remember....But it does pay to go there in person and speak with the seller .I can assure you that there NO bargains to be had.All the classic mercs from WW2 were already in the hands of Knowledgable owners who Quickly cashed in there prizes in the early 90's.There are 2 380K's about 5 minutes from here that were liberated after the Soviet Collapse,and one other which came from Poland in 1994 which was restored here and is now on Display at the new Classic Center in Irvine, California.It came second in class at pebble Beach last year,just to give you an idea of it's conditon.

t walgamuth · #12 06-23-2006, 10:31 PM

it would be wrong to restore that one. it is clearly a survivor car and should be left alone. mechanical refurbishment only!

tom w

mercmad6.3 · #13 06-24-2006, 06:37 AM

heres a movie By Dani Levy about hitler and features a 7.7 liter Mercedes.

http://www.x-filme.de/html/neu_meinfuehrer.htm