Sep 28 (edited)

Found this Mercedes Book Randomly at a Store

I came across this book by Jan Melin on supercharged 8-cylinder Mercedes. Goes into a surprising amount of detail on each car. Had various paper clippings throughout when I found it which is cool. Wondering if anyone knows more about it.

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Sep 28, 2026

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Replies (22)

· Sep 28

Chris, you have stumbled on to the bible of prewar supercharged 500K & 540K Mercedes. If the price of the book was anything under 100 dollars buy it. That is a steal. Volume I deals with the history of the cars and specifications while Volume II goes in to details about individual cars.

Jan Melin spent many hundreds of hours in the archives at Daimler Benz researching the first book.

· Sep 28

There is a great topic in the CCCA forum (started by yours truly 15 years ago).

https://classiccarclub.org/forums/2016/topics/14418

· Sep 28

Wow, I’ll definitely have to read up.

· Sep 28

Btw, the car on the cover is a 540K Cab A. You guys had this one in the showroom a few years ago. Might have been before your time. I think I have a video of it driving somewhere.

· Sep 29

I definitely remember this car. I think it was also at Audrain a few years earlier. Never got to hear one running, the supercharger only kicks on under heavy acceleration correct? My understanding was it has a clutch that engages.

· Sep 28

YouTube ↗

· Sep 28

Here is mom standing next to my dad's Cabriolet A back in 1993 at Pebble Beach

(edited)

· Sep 28

Btw, my dad restored this car in the family garage including spraying it. He did a lot of the work but hired guys to come in and help him that were pros. Including Wray Schelin & Byard Libbey.

· Sep 29

AJ, ignoring the cost of paint, how many hours do you think go into the exercise of a color change on a CCCA car? 30? 50?
- Dan.

· Sep 29

Color change on my dad's car was unfortunate but a sign of the times. You have to fully disassemble the car to change the color the hours are measured in hundreds and probably over 1k. But it is hard to say exactly because usually when you are painting a car you are doing a bunch of other things at the same time, wood repair, rust repair, chrome, etc so it all blends together.

· Sep 29

@alsancle is that you in the photo?

· Sep 28

The king of the 500k/540K line was the Special Roadster. The body was built by Mercedes inhouse coachbuilder SIndelfingen. 20 plus total original cars were built on both the 500k and 540k chassis. They are impossible to tell apart. The super desirable version is the one with the hidden rear spares. There are 3 or 4 of those.

· Sep 28

Very stunning. There was a brown special roadster at Audrain last year. From my understanding that’s how it left the factory which is quite cool.

· Sep 28

Yep. this car. Here it is 50 years ago when it was yellow. It is chassis number 130894. You can find it in the second volume of the book.

· Sep 29

Beautiful! How much does one of those sell for these days?

· Sep 29

Somewhere around 10,000,000 is the going rate for a real car. You can get new coachwork on an original chassis for 1,000,000 to 2,000,000.

· Sep 29

I wonder if the one I worked on is in there. Pretty sure the number was 154062

· Sep 29

Good memory Shawn. I have the steering box and shocks for that car if he ever wants them back.

YouTube ↗

· Sep 29

Thanks but I'm not in contact with that owner anymore. I doubt it's been driven in the last few years.

· Sep 29

The only worse car to let sit is a RR.

· Sep 30

Great find Chris. My wife is a travel hound. when we are on vacation, she always has activities throughout the day that she wants to do. I try and find one of them that will take an hour or two where I won’t be missed and head to a couple of the higher rated used book stores in whatever city we find ourselves. I love stumbling on a great car book while on vacation. Easy to bring them home in your carry on.

· Sep 30

I love books too and have over a hundred car related ones. But I'm finding myself referencing them less and less. I think the internet as rewired our brains to keep us from sitting for an hour or two and just reading. Every once in a while I go on a reading binge. I managed to do most of the biographies of the founding fathers as well as most of the robber barons. But nothing lately.