Tuesday 5th May 2015

Blitzen-Benz: Time For Tea?

21.5-litres, over 1,000lb ft and 125mph in 1909; the story of the Lightning Benz from its current owner

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Some childhood dream cars are more easily attainable than others. At 16 you may want a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or even just anything with wheels. Bill Evans sat in the Blitzen-Benz at 16 and committed himself to that car ever since. With three in existence...

But the restoration of this Blitzen is complete, Bill drives it and in this vid he explains a little more about it. Of course we won't spoil the details but to know a car like this achieved 125mph years before WWI is reason enough to spare a few minutes for it. It's a phenomenal achievement that both Bill and Mercedes are rightly proud of.

Watch the vid here.

[Twoshoe]

"makes your eyeballs shake in their sockets"!! A slightly disturbing thought but what a fantastic machine, especially as it actually gets used on the road.

[JMF894]

What a magnificent piece of kit!

[dukeboy749r]

What a great car and a great guy!

Total respect to him and his love for this machine

[D Stanley]

Blah Blah Blah Blah,

Let the machine talk. I want to hear the engine not the owner.

[PunterCam]

D Stanley said:

Blah Blah Blah Blah,

Let the machine talk. I want to hear the engine not the owner.

It probably sounds like an old engine being driven slowly.

[unsprung]

When he explains that the pieces of this car went together without drama, and that the engine fired up on the first try, you have to wonder how much of this is because of the quality of the original engineering and manufacture.

Makes you think about the quality of things around you, today. (and not merely their complexity)

[AER]

Either that or he was too busy signing cheques to notice the difficulties guys were having making it work...

[TWPC]

Fascinating subject: I wish there was more info and, as mentioned above, some noise from the car itself. Couldn't they just turn off the music?

[dr_rallye]

Is there a back story on how Bill Evans managed to acquire one of the three original cars? I suspect it wasn't a barn find

[pd2]

Here's it starting..... Does take a while.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xMa3_tT5mKA

[jamespink]

unsprung said:

When he explains that the pieces of this car went together without drama, and that the engine fired up on the first try, you have to wonder how much of this is because of the quality of the original engineering and manufacture.

Makes you think about the quality of things around you, today. (and not merely their complexity)

That and the fact the restoration was clearly carried out with no regard for cost by world class engineers! Great job by the way...

[unsprung]

jamespink said:

unsprung said:

When he explains that the pieces of this car went together without drama, and that the engine fired up on the first try, you have to wonder how much of this is because of the quality of the original engineering and manufacture.

Makes you think about the quality of things around you, today. (and not merely their complexity)

That and the fact the restoration was clearly carried out with no regard for cost by world class engineers! Great job by the way...

Quite. It's not likely that he was shouting up the stairs of a semi-detached, "Love, have you seen the hand soap?"

More likely... His phone emits a somnolent beep as an e-mail arrives: "Your car is ready."

[pSynrg]

5.4 litres PER CYLINDER

...and possibly the greatest name for a car ever, before everything had been marketed to mush.

[davegreg]

I went to this years Techna Classica Show in Essen - the first car that greeted the visitors when you walked in the main hall was a Blitzen Benz - absolutely jaw droppingly gorgeous car!


I tried for half an hour to get this image the right way up, but was not successful - tried rotating the pic in both directions but it still ended up like this! Still thought it was worth posting though with it being a very rare car an' all - bloody annoying though.

Edited by davegreg on Monday 11th May 19:37