[Closed] PICS...Two Mid-'50's Merc Race Cars....

PICS...Two Mid-'50's Merc Race Cars....

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Okay, okay, I know one's a Benz and the other's a Mercury, but since the 722 is the famous 300 SLR that Stirling Moss drove to victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia with Denis Jenkinson navigating, and two more British practitioners of motorsport you would be hard pressed to ever find, and the Brits call M-B's "Mercs" and it even has a Union Jack on the headrest, for cryin' out loud, well....

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....the tie-in between the two cars, however tenuous, gives me an opportunity to show my most recent acquisition, Sunstar's decent replica of Russ Truelove's '56 Merc. I won't rehash the errors they made on the car. I've mentioned them before....

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One of the odd details that they got right was the slightly cockeyed placement of the rear plate. Russ' daughter pointed that out to me yesterday....

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I thinks it's also worth noting that the plate number is correct and that this old race car is STREET LEGAL. It gets driven to local cruise nights, although it hitches a ride in a hauler to far flung events across the country....

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The missing windshield wiper on the driver's side is also correct, if only for the car's more recent appearances. Russ mentioned that it was removed because it would flutter when the car was out on the track and was quite distracting to the various drivers. BTW, if anyone out there has a couple of these wipers from a distressed Sunstar '56 Merc of any kind that they'd be willing to part with, I'd LOVE to have them. Chris Moroni are you reading this? 😉

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Despite Sunstar's initial stonewalling of me when I contacted them about getting a few complimentary copies of this car for Russ, I had to buy one for myself. This is the first time that I've had a diecast replica of a specific car whose owner I am personally acquainted with and I've gotta say that's a unique and rather special sort of feeling....

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The graphics on the car are it's best feature. They're pretty near dead bang perfect and, of course, they got basic shape of the '56 Merc down pat, too. Russ told me that when the guys at the Murray Brothers Garage saw his copy, they like about to flipped their lids and have since acquired a few for themselves....

This post would not have been possible without the help of my ever faithful photographic assistant, Oreo....

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