Mercedes Renntransporter
One of the more famous transporters in motor racing
“Renn” is German for race, so its title in English would be race transporter.
However it was not a transporter in the traditional sense. It was really an “emergency delivery vehicle”, used for quick trips back to factory for damaged race cars, or from the factory for replacements. All it carried was the car.
It has been described as “the fastest race car transporter in the world”.
Its origins date to team manager Neubauer’s desire to have quick transport. As shown in post 50 he introduced the first transporter as prior to that race cars had been driven to circuits.
By the early 1950’s transporters had become much bigger, slow and lumbering.
Neubauer wanted something very fast for use in Europe for the purposes mentioned above.
The Renntransporter was ready in the middle of the 1954 season, for the W196 race car and the 300 SLR sports racer
It only had a very short life in its original purpose, so only limited B/W photos of it.
In June 1955 Mercedes was involved in the large crash into the crowd at Le Mans, which killed 85 spectators, and injured another 150.
Mercedes immediately withdrew from all motor sport, so the Renntransporter became redundant.
At the end of 1955 it did a promotional tour of the US.
It was then intended to exhibit at the Mercedes museum in Munich, but it was realised the combined weight of the Renntransporter and a 300SLR sports racer on it’s back would be too heavy for the museum’s floors.
On the orders of Mercedes boss Uhlenhaut it was scrapped in December 1967.
When Mercedes many years later built a much bigger museum it was decided that a replica of the Renntransporter would be ideal for display.
This was commissioned from a German company, and completed in 1993.
It took 6,000 hours and a reported cost of 1.5 million euros.
If you Google “Renntransporter” there are lots of pictures of the replica.
