How one American ruined the world’s best car

It’s an icon, an automotive statement revered by world leaders and celebrities alike. The Mercedes-Benz 600 redefined the luxury car segment when it was launched in 1963, an era where mere ‘luxury’ no longer sufficed when describing the big Merc’s presence, technology and sheer audacity on the road.

Instead, the W100 Series Mercedes-Benz 600 entered the rarefied air of the ‘ultra-luxury’, a segment where craftsmanship, engineering and attention to detail are unspoken tenets, following the Renaissance idea of sprezzatura, defined as an artful nonchalance. Effortlessness.

The ‘Grosser’ Benz was the automotive manifestation of sprezzatura, an ultra-luxury car that oozed presence and power, a remarkable feat of hand-built engineering. Making its debut at the 1963 Frankfurt auto show, the Mercedes-Benz 600 wasn’t designed for everyday people. Nor was it built for them.

Each 600 was built meticulously by hand, and only then when a firm order had been received by Mercedes-Benz.

It became the go-to limo for world leaders, if your world was developing, or your leadership self-proclaimed. Kim Jong II owned one (and his successor Kim Jong Un continues to own it) and so did China’s Mao Zedong. Saddam Hussein was a notable 600 owner as were Idi Amin, Leonid Brezhnev and Silvio Berlusconi.

Celebrities and business tycoons were also on the Grosser Benz’s owners register with Elvis Presley, three of the Beatles (only Paul McCartney eschewed 600 ownership amongst the Fab Four), Eric Clapton, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, and The Pope all ultra-luxuriating in the back of a 600.

More recently, Jay Kay, Jay Leno, Jeremy Clarkson and Rowan Atkinson are proud devotees of arguably Mercedes-Benz’s finest feat of automotive engineering while closer to home, tyre tycoon Bob Jane and media mogul Frank Packer both owned 600s.

It’s another media tycoon that is of interest to the story of one particular Grosser Benz, a story that that asks more questions than it answers including the big one, ‘why?’.

Hugh Hefner needs little introduction. The founder and publisher of Playboy magazine lived his life in the limelight, surrounded by ‘Playboy Bunnies’ who lived in his ‘Playboy Mansions’ and were ferried around Hef’s ‘Playboy’ private jets and his armada of cars.

Hefner’s car collection included everything you’d expect of a man who made his fortune in the ‘adult entertainment’ industry including a variety of Porsches, a handful of Lamborghinis, a number of Cadillacs, as well as some beautiful classics like a Mercedes-Benz 300SL and a BMW 3.0 CSi.

But, arguably his favourite car, or cars, because he owned two of them, were his 1969 and 1971 W100 Series Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullmans.

The 600 was the most technological car ever built when it launched in 1963. Designed by legendary designers Paul Bracq and Bruno Sacco, and engineered by Fritz Nallinger and the father of the 300SL, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the ‘Grosser Benz’ was billed at the time as the most advanced car in the world.

Underpinning this technological advancement was a complex hydraulic system that operated just about everything that moved – windows, sunroof, seats, boot lid, bonnet, doors, armrests, central locking – while the near-three-tonne limo rode on hydraulically operated self-levelling suspension.

To shift all this weight and complexity, Mercedes-Benz had to design a new engine, a stonking 6.3-litre V8, internal code M100, which was good for 187kW and 501Nm.

Inside, occupants were cossetted in leather and wood, with optional extras like televisions, bar fridges and phones available.

Each car was hand-built to order in one of four styles – a regular short wheelbase limo, the long wheelbase Pullman available as either a four- or six-door model and the Landaulet which featured a convertible top over the rear passenger compartment. A total of 2677 600s were produced between 1963 and 1981 – 2190 short wheelbase, 428 Pullmans and 59 Landaulets.

And they weren’t cheap, Mercedes-Benz asking for the equivalent of $AU33,351 at launch in 1963, or around $AU305,000 in today’s money.

Still, that didn’t deter Hefner who bought his first Pullman in 1969 before adding a second in 1971. And for many years, his ultra-luxurious limos served him well, cossetting Playmates and Playboy Mansion guests in style and comfort.

The provenance of Hef’s pair of 600s has been largely lost over the years, periodically popping up at classic car auctions where they, understandably, attract interest, not only for the sheer scarcity of the car, but also its celebrity connection.

But, nothing that Hemmings or Barrett-Jackson or Sotheby’s offered comes close to this obscure classified listing from Germany.

It features a tri-axle, six-wheel 600 Pullman, claimed to have once belonged to the Playboy impresario himself.

According to the listing, the 600 Pullman, with an eye-watering price tag of 450,000 euros ($AU743,000) is “the first of a small series of three-axle extended models designed by LA-based Jack Ryan Group. It was designed and manufactured in 1980. It has the serial number and is one of the two vehicles that were formerly owned by the publisher Hugh Hefner”.

An extended, six-wheeler Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman? Consider our curiosity piqued.

A little digging around found scant information about this particular car. What we did glean from a couple of German sources is that this car, has Mercedes-Benz documentation confirming it was ordered on 17 October, 1970 by Playboy magazine. Bearing the build number 258, the 1971 model has a Fahrgestell Number (VIN) of 100014 1200 1811. That would make it, purportedly, the second Pullman owned by Hugh Hefner. That car was a black four-door Pullman with burgundy leather interior.

According to sources, the Jack Ryan Group commenced its unusual customisation of the Pullman in 1980. It’s unclear whether this was at Hefner’s request, or if the Playboy mogul had already sold the car to an un-named third party.

Sources say the addition of a third axle and two more wheels had no discernible performance or technological benefit which, along with the car’s extra dimensions (it has been lengthened at both the front and the rear), served as a little more than a status ‘flex’.

Jack Ryan Group’s modifications included extending the rear fender in order to accommodate the extra wheels. However, the boot lid’s dimensions remained unchanged, allowing instead for the fitment of Continental-style spare wheel at the rear, like that favoured by many American cars of the 1950s and ’60s.

The front fenders were also extended, as evidenced by the listing’s photos. Those extensions, according to what little info we can glean, housed two non-functional compressors, one on each side of the grille, designed to give the impression of even more powerful performance from the 6.3-litre V8.

It’s unclear whether Jack Ryan Group ever finished its custom build or whether it passed into other hands as an unfinished project. What photographic evidence we have found tends to indicate the latter.

Further documents confirm the car was shipped from Long Beach in California to Bremerhaven, Germany in 1998 and from here its history is lost to the rusts of steelwork and metal until it cropped up on autoscout24.com, for sale as essentially a ‘parts car’.

The listing claims that many of the 600s vital organs, such as the engine, gearbox, front windscreen, and much of the side glass are still available. The listing claims around 65 per cent of the unique Pullman’s parts are available.

It’s a sad end in this case, for what was, and remains, one of the greatest cars ever built, a statement of style and power that many have tried, but few have succeeded in emulating.

The Mercedes-Benz ‘Grosser’ was in its day, the best car in the world, a remarkable feat of German engineering which is unlikely to be ever seen again. Hopefully, someone can see the value in rescuing this American-styled abomination and returning it to its original glory. With only 428 of the long-wheelbase Pullman ever produced, it’s worth saving.

With prices today of around $US340,000 for fully-restored and maintained Pullmans, we’re not sure the 450,000 euro asking price makes economic sense for a rusted out, incomplete, Frankenpullman that does little more than speak to American excess of the 1980s.

But before I sign off, it’s worth noting Germans too have taken the world’s greatest car and turned it into something, well, not so great.

Behold this Mercedes-Benz 600 (build number 2627) that has been remodelled “in the style of the 1930s”. With a wheelbase extended by 70cm and its track widened by 30cm, the 600 features a new design out front, leading into curved fenders and sideboards before ending with a flourish in a Continental-style spare wheel hanging off the boot lid.

German Eberhard Schulz is the man responsible for its design and build, a process that took five months. Hmm.