In previous articles, I’ve owned up to the fact that I don’t know as much about pre-1960s stuff as I probably should, and usually it doesn’t bother me very much. Most of that stuff looks the same to me anyways. The cars are generally kept in one of two conditions: original and slow (boring), or 1996-era Super Chevy’d out with a small-block and tweed and billet everything (lame).
But this time, I wish I had a little more knowledge about the older stuff so I would have had a better idea what this thing was when I saw it. I’m sure “W.T.F. Car Werks” gets a happy every time someone fails to identify their car. And who could blame them? There’s nothing cooler than a car that makes people stop and scratch their heads. I mean, if you’re into that sort of thing, anyways…
When I first saw it, it just looked like some old …something or other. But once I took a peek inside and realized that you drive from the back seat and the entire front seat area is composed of wooden crates, I realized this was more than just a case of someone prying off some emblems, buying a couple cans of paint in various shades of salmon and heading down to the Pavilions on a whim.
To me and my limited knowledge base (as well as my faint- at best- interest level in the types of cars that usually look like this), it resembles a 54-ish Mercedes 220A with the trim rings removed from the headlights, no front bumper, and a bunch of other stuff removed as well. At first glance, I assumed it was an American car, but I quickly realized there must be something German about it, based on the obviously intentional spelling of the word “Werks” on the side of it. Also, that grille kind of gives it away as something foreign, since American cars hadn’t used grilles like that for probably 20 years at that point.
Bryan summed the car up best when he said it looks like what would happen if someone was forced to build a car using only leftover set pieces from an Indiana Jones movie.
A couple things I do like about the car: I really like the paint scheme on it, as well as the fact that the dash indicates that the car might have a semi-serious powertrain.
I’m not sure about that whole back seat driver thing though. And why the crates? Are they simply there to garner attention, or do they serve some sort of bizarre purpose? It may not make any sense to drive a car that is equal parts rat rod, classic European luxury car, and Steven Spielberg, but it’s definitely something different. And for that, I applaud it.
Do you happen to know what (the fuck) is going on with this car? If so, leave a comment below and fill us in!
