What’s left to be said about Hermann Goering? The man was basically Hitler’s right hand and was one of the main people responsible not only for some of the atrocities that happened in World War II but also the rise of Germany before the whole thing was triggered.
That being said, it’s hard for me to come up with something interesting that hasn’t already been discussed about the higher-up nazi. Or is it? Looking up Al Capone’s car I happened to stumble upon some footage of Goering’s car as well as they seemingly had more in common than you’d expect.
Shot back in 1953, the video published by British Pathe on Youtube portrays the personal Mercedes of Hermann Goering, a car that was so heavily modified, it could hardly pass as an automobile. As a matter of fact, I think it was more of a tank than a car.
Under the bonnet sat an engine that was supercharged and delivered so much power that it could take the 5-ton car (that’s right, it weighed more than a modern truck) up to speeds over 100 mph (160 km/h). That added weight was due to a lot of combined factors.
For instance, as you can see from the video below, the windows were nearly two inches thick and bulletproof to withstand various assassination attempts. As it turned out, they were also needed as the car in the video has all of its windows smashed for some reason.
Then there were the armored doors and armored floor, all of which used to make sure the occupants of the car survived land mines. Even the boot was larger than usual, prompting the narrator to make some ridiculous claims.
All in all, it was an incredible piece of engineering and just the fact that it had a supercharged engine back in those days makes it worth our while. Just listen to that whine!
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