The Mercedes-Benz T80 was a six-wheeled vehicle built by

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

, developed and designed by

Ferdinand Porsche Ferdinand Porsche (3 September 1875 – 30 January 1951) was an Austrian-German automotive engineer and founder of the Porsche AG. He is best known for creating the first gasoline–electric hybrid vehicle (Lohner–Porsche), the Volksw ...

. It was intended to break the

world land speed record The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regula ...

, but never made the attempt, the project having been overtaken by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Background

World-renowned German auto racer Hans Stuck's pet project was to take the world land speed record and he convinced

to build a special racing car for the attempt. Officially supported by

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

(a race car fan influenced by Stuck), the project was started in 1937. Automotive designer Dr

first targeted a speed of , but after

George Eyston Captain George Edward Thomas Eyston MC OBE (28 June 1897 – 11 June 1979) was a British engineer, inventor, and racing driver best known for breaking the land speed record three times between 1937 and 1939. Early life George Eyston was educ ...

's and John Cobb's successful LSR runs of 1938 and 1939 the target speed was raised to . By late 1939, when the project was finished, the target speed was a much higher . This would also be the first attempt at the ''absolute'' land speed record on

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

soil, Hitler envisioned the T80 as another propaganda triumph of German technological superiority to be witnessed by all the world, courtesy of German television. erification neededThe same Autobahn course had already been proven ideal for record-breaking in smaller capacity classes, Britain's Goldie Gardner having exceeded there in a 1,500 cc MG.

Power

The massive 44.5 litre

Daimler-Benz DB 603 The Daimler-Benz DB 603 was a German aircraft engine used during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled 12-cylinder inverted V12 enlargement of the DB 601, which was in itself a development of the DB 600. Production of the DB 603 commenced in ...

inverted

V12 V12 or V-12 may refer to: Aircraft * Mil V-12, a Soviet heavy lift helicopter * Pilatus OV-12, a planned American military utility aircraft * Rockwell XFV-12, an American experimental aircraft project * Škoda-Kauba V12, a Czechoslovak experim ...

was selected to power the record-setting car. The engine was an increased

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

derivative of the famous DB-601 aircraft engine that powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter in production at the time, with the DB 603 ending up as the largest displacement inverted V12 aviation engine in production for Germany during the World War II years. The DB-603 fitted was just the third prototype (V3) engine of this variant and tuned up to , roughly twice the power of the Bf 109 or the Supermarine Spitfire. The engine ran on a special mixture of methyl alcohol (63%), benzene (16%), ethanol (12%), acetone (4.4%), nitrobenzene (2.2%), avgas (2%), and ether (0.4%) with MW (methanol-water) injection for charge cooling and as an anti-detonant.

Construction

The difficulty of the challenge was met with money and engineering genius. By 1939, the T80 was fully completed at a cost of RM 600,000. The car was over long, had three axles with two of them driven, weighed over 2.7

metric ton The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s (three short tons), and produced together with the aerodynamics of specialist Josef Mickl to attain a projected speed of . Aerodynamically, the T80 incorporated a Porsche-designed enclosed cockpit, low sloping bonnet, rounded wings, and elongated tail booms. Midway down the body were two small wings to provide

downforce Downforce is a downwards lift force created by the aerodynamic features of a vehicle. If the vehicle is a car, the purpose of downforce is to allow the car to travel faster by increasing the vertical force on the tires, thus creating more grip ...

and ensure stability - these wings were inspired by the wings of Opel's famous rocket cars from 1928. The heavily streamlined twin-tailed body (forming the fairings for each pair of tandem rear wheels) achieved a

drag coefficient In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient (commonly denoted as: c_\mathrm, c_x or c_) is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment, such as air or water. It is used in the drag e ...

of 0.18, an astonishingly low figure for any vehicle.

Projections for the 1940 land speed record attempt

As ambitiously planned, Hans Stuck would have driven the T80 over a special stretch of the Reichsautobahn Berlin — Halle/Leipzig, which passed south of Dessau (now part of the modern

A9 Autobahn is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Berlin and Munich via Leipzig and Nuremberg. It is the fifth longest autobahn spanning . Route The northern terminus of the A 9 is at the Potsdam interchange, where it merges into the A 10, ...

) between the modern A9 freeway's exits 11 and 12, which was wide and almost long with the median paved over as the ''Dessauer Rennstrecke'' (Dessau racetrack). The date was set for the January 1940 "RekordWoche" (Record Week), but the war begun on September 1, 1939 prevented the T80 run. In 1939, the vehicle had been unofficially nicknamed ''Schwarzer Vogel'' (Black Bird) by Hitler and was to be painted in German nationalistic colours, complete with German eagle and Nazi swastika, but the event was cancelled and the T80 garaged.

War and after the war

The DB 603 aircraft engine was subsequently removed during the war while the vehicle was moved to safety and storage in Kärnten,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The T80 survived the war and was eventually moved into the

Mercedes-Benz Museum The Mercedes-Benz Museum is an automobile museum in Stuttgart, Germany. It covers the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand and the brands associated with it. Stuttgart is home to the Mercedes-Benz brand and the international headquarters of the Me ...

in Stuttgart for permanent display.

Current status

The T80 is currently on display at the

in Stuttgart-

Bad Cannstatt Bad Cannstatt, also called Cannstatt (until July 23, 1933) or Kannstadt (until 1900), is one of the outer stadtbezirke, or city boroughs, of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Bad Cannstatt is the oldest and most populous of Stuttgart's bo ...

Technical data

*Total weight: *Power: at 3200 rpm *Engine: *Wheels: (6) 7 X 31 *Length: *Width (body without wings): *Width (body with wings): *Height: *Drag Coefficient: 0.18 *Speed: estimated at between Mercedes-Benz T80 front-low Mercedes-Benz Museum.jpg, Lower view Mercedes-Benz T80 side Mercedes-Benz Museum.jpg, Side view Mercedes-Benz T80 rear Mercedes-Benz Museum.jpg, Rear view

Names of the T80

*Official: Mercedes-Benz T80 *Porsche: Mercedes Rekordwagen (Record Car) *Mikcl: Hochgeschwindigkeitsrennwagen (High-speed racing car) *Hitler: Schwarzer Vogel (Black Bird)

References

External links

''Mercedes-Benz T 80 record car, 1939'', website "mercedes-benz-classic.com"Official Mercedes-Benz Museum website
lists cars that attempted to break the land speed record from 1934 to 1940, including the T80.
Museum tour of the Mercedes-Benz Museum
at official website of ''European Car''.
Old Machine Press Page on the Mercedes-Benz T80
{{Authority control Wheel-driven land speed record cars T80 Cars powered by aircraft engines