"I love you, my heavenly wonder express," wrote poet Kurt Juhn of his supercharged Mercedes in 1929, and the "S" series Mercedes-Benz sports cars of the late 1920s have always held near-mythical status among enthusiasts. The attainment of one of these dramatic cars, with the banshee wail of their clutched-in supercharger, has always been a costly privilege accorded the select few, but it was an unfulfilled dream of "Uncle Teddy" Jameson to create authentic recreations of the exciting Mercedes SS using a combination of genuine and reproduction parts. Nevertheless, the project had advanced well along the road to fulfilment, and bills are available detailing thousands of pounds-worth of work carried out on these components by Crosthwaite and Gardiner.
The kit offered here is the most complete of the three lots of Mercedes components from the Jameson Collection, and contains virtually all that is needed to complete a Mercedes SS chassis. The Lot includes a US-made reproduction chassis formerly owned by Lee Gohlicke, marque authority and author of the "Illustrated Mercedes-Benz Buyers Guide" and many authentic components which include original steering box, crankcase and sump, carburettors, supercharger, front and rear axles and a complete original gearbox. There are also valuable components like a pair of Bosch headlamps, a new radiator complete with core, a petrol tank, a new Autovac…
A complete list is available on request, but the fortunate possessor of this set of components would not have to source many more parts in order to complete a worthy recreation of a vintage "SS", a car that achieved legendary status in its own era, particularly in 1931 when "Rain Master" Rudi Caracciola, driving one of the fabulous short chassis SSKL variants of the SS, won every event he entered - seven hillclimbs, the Eifelrennen and the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, the AVUS-Rennen at Berlin and the Mille Miglia road race.