The museum has various rooms based on themes and so some of the cars that you get to see are not necessarily the most famous.  I like this as you get to see models that you have not seen before.   Of course you can’t see a Mercedes-Benz museum without the old favorites like the Gullwing and 500k, and the museum does not disappoint in that regard.

What is all the more impressive is that this museum is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are various warehouses around Stuttgart that house the extended collection.   This are not open to the public unfortunately.

The public collection is highly impressive and well worth the trip while in southern Germany.

These photographs are from 2008, so the collection has likely changed somewhat as I hear they rotate it.

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What stands out is the range of the collection – there really is something for everyone and not everything is a multi-million dollar Ferrari there is some really interesting stuff in there.   They had a really interesting section for communist cars (including a rare Gaz Chaika – a car for high ranking party officials), a car called the Black Prince, and all the usual favourites.

The best represented marques were probably Ferrari, Rolls Royce, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Jaguar.     But there were loads of great oddballs as well – for example a brace of Bedford trucks.  I think the highlight of the museum is supposed to be the huge Ferrari collection, and it certainly is impressive, but for me it was quite low on the list compared to some of the other cars.     Some of my favourites:

• Mercedes 300S
• The red 300SL
• The Invicta Black Prince
• A little boat tailed Fiat
• XK140 FHC
• Bentley S2 Continental
• The Tatraplan
• Mazda Cosmo

It was also really nice to see models near each other for comparison, e.g. a 220S Mercedes Ponton and a 220S Mercedes Fintail.   Or A Rolls Royce Phantom VI next to a Silver Cloud III.

Apparently the cars are for sale, although they do not have prices listed.   I would have liked a bit more description of the various cars, and the cafe was seriously overwhelmed, taking 55 minutes to bring out a hamburger.  These are all small teething problems for an excellent museum which will hopefully thrive.

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Highlight of the show for me was the 1912 Benz (before Daimler and Benz merged).   The car had been painstakingly restored and was a credit to the owners. The Benz had an interesting dual ignition system with a set of plugs over the cylinders and a set over the valves.  You could run the car with one or both giving you some control over timing too.    There was also a nice selection of Microcars, the usual nice collection of Mercedes and a good showing of Porsches.   Unfortunately, not many BMWs showed up for some reasons.  There was a very impressive effort from one gentleman, who entered 11 cars in the show, ranging from a 1972 108 through to modern.

This year the show also included a ‘Guest Marque’ which was Rolls Royce,  a nice addition to the show.   The two highlights of the guest marque was the two Phatoms – a Phantom II and  a Phantom V.   The Phantom II was an incredible piece of machinery and the V was a former vice regal car and used for the tour of Queen Elizabeth II.   Given it was a vice regal car, It was probably the car that carried Sir William Kerr to dismiss Gough Whitlam, ironic given the event was held at Gough Whitlam Park.  I am told that Jaguar is the guest next year.

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