It’s a strange-looking beast, isn’t it? In the early 1950s, Mercedes-Benz’s preferred method for keeping their race cars running was to bring the cars back to Germany for work before driving out to the next track. That meant that the racing team needed a machine that could cover ground swiftly with a car strapped onto the back so that the car could be driven to the factory garage for work and driven back to the race track to whip up on competition. The answer was the Rennabteilung, which was a solid ramp truck with the better part of a Mercedes 180 sedan’s body and a de-tuned six-cylinder from the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. 108 miles an hour with a car on the back in 1950 was top-tier design and performance for a utility vehicle, but when the truck had outlived it’s usefulness, Mercedes scrapped it. But it was difficult for fans of that era of racing to forget the oddly proportioned car hauler…seriously, could you forget seeing it?…and at least two replicas have been built since: one was done by Mercedes-Benz themselves, and the other one here, which Jay Leno bought from the original Swedish builder, is now living a comfortable life in the comedian’s garage. It’s not a perfect replica…a Mercedes truck engine and five-speed manual power it, there’s a functioning hood and air conditioning, and the rear windows aren’t glass…at least, not yet. But because it’s a Leno vehicle, it gets used, and we can only imagine the joy on the faces of blue-bloods when this long-nosed hauler comes in with a 300SL on the back. Looks right, doesn’t it?
With the extreme cab-forward positioning steering was best done a day in advance as that’s how long it took all those rods and linkages to actually turn the front wheels.
But in its original form the world’s fastest truck and still mind-blowing in the extreme…