Mercedes-Benz 500 K Spezial-Roadster, Anthracite

Mercedes-Benz unveiled the 500 K at the Berlin motor show in March 1934, and its party piece was the supercharger. The Roots blower sat ahead of the carburettor and was engaged only when the driver pressed the accelerator through a pressure point at full throttle, at which the 5.0-litre straight-eight went from about 100 hp to 160 hp with a howl that announced it. The most extravagant body on the chassis was the Spezial-Roadster, built in the special-vehicle department at Sindelfingen under Hermann Ahrens, largely to individual order, and carried on to the larger 5.4-litre 540 K from 1936. Its proportions are deliberate theatre: a bonnet that takes up half the car, high doors, wings that rise and fall in one long curve, and a tail that ends in an exposed spare wheel.

The model is finished in a deep anthracite that warms to bronze in the light, set off by chrome brightwork, wire wheels and whitewall tyres. The beige cloth hood is folded down behind a tan leather cabin. The doors open on stitched door cards with map pockets, and the bonnet sides lift to show the engine with its flexible exhaust pipes; the dashboard is a pearl-effect panel of white-faced instruments behind a large four-spoke wheel. Twin horns, driving lamps and German historic plates complete it. Bauer builds it at 1:12, in an edition of 2,000.