If your idea of a kit car is a Pontiac Fiero chassis with a Ferrari Enzo body kit on it, prepare to have your mind thoroughly blown. Though the car it was based on is now a six or even seven-figure collector's item, this hand build kit replica gives you all the style, flair, and soul of the original car for a price that won't ensure your quick and painful bankruptcy.
If you're the kind of person who prefers classic European GT cars instead of American muscle, this is the kit car for you, and it could be yours right now on autotrader.com via Streetside Classics of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Today, let's take a look at the classic Mercedes-Benz kit car that changes the game in the kit building world and why the car it's based on is so special.
The Inspiration
You don't get a kit car as stunning as this without something truly special to base it on. We may detest the authoritarian regime of the country where the car was made at the time. Even so, politics aside, the 500K was the flagship car for all of Germany throughout the mid to late 1930s.
It was a technological marvel ahead of its time in ways that boggle the mind. In a time when superchargers were reserved for high altitude fighter aircraft, the 500K was using one to exceed speeds of a hundred miles per hour through a five-liter straight-eight engine. When you realize most cars from the mid-30s couldn't crack 60, it makes it all the more unbelievable, and yet, it was real. In a period when passenger cars had the same frames as trucks, the 500K had independent rear suspension, coil-over shocks all around and even power boosted brakes.
When you remember that the Ford Mustang didn't adopt independent rear suspension until 80 years after the Merc, it makes this machine not only one of the most important cars of all time but also one of the most important pieces of engineering of the 20th century. It was because of cars like the 500k that the German Autobahn was able to be created. For this most noble of causes, we have to raise a toast to this wonderful little Merc.
A Stunning Re-Creation
Since the original car is worth millions, it's nice that a company existed that made it possible for average Joes to get to drive something that was ostensibly the same. The Fargo, North Dakota based Classic Roadsters Ltd hand-built the fiberglass body and all the interior trimmings that went into this car. Every interior component, as well as the white wall tires, are all as they were when this stunning kit car rolled off the factory floor. With only 29 thousand miles on the odometer, this car is barely broken in.
If someone hadn't told us this big red Mercedes was a replica, we'd have been none the wiser, but we appreciate that the sellers had the integrity to sell it for a very reasonable price, good on them for that. At just under $50 thousand, we're scratching our heads at how they managed to sell it for that cheap because it looks every bit the million dollars that its inspiration is asking these days.
It might have a lot to do with the fact that instead of the five-liter straight-eight under the hood, there's the dependable old 350 Chevy Small-block V8. That may drive purists away, but then again, who needs them. That just leaves it open for someone more appreciative of the effort put into this car than others. If anything, you'll be able to cruise in this car at 100 mph just as easily as the original car would have. You won't have to spend thousands to service the engine to boot.
Exquisite Attention To Detail
If you think they skimped out on this car by fitting a shoddy interior, prepare to have egg on your face. The cockpit is lined with wood and leather as far as the eye can see. The dials are as period-correct as is possible today, and an aftermarket Am/FM CD and MP3 deck ensure this car has every single luxury a modern car would have.
The blurb underneath pictures of the car online is five or six paragraphs long, but the introductory sentence tells you all you need to know " The 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500K is part of the highest echelon of classic cars, but for those who don't want to spend estates worth of money, or get nervous driving a multi-million-dollar classic, this great-looking factory-built replica by Heritage is the way to go."
A Million Dollar Experience
If you base your experiences in life off of how much they cost compared to how much joy it gave you, then this kit car must be the bargain of the century. Just so you get an idea of how much of a deal this is, remember that you could have a new Land Rover Discovery, Jeep Grand Cherokee, or Lexus LX 400 for around the same money. You tell us which one of these cars is the better deal, we think you'd be insane to make any other choice.
Sources: Autotrader.com, Meecum.com