11 May 2009 - 00:00
Hitler’s car for sale!
OK, we're being a bit sensationalist with that headline. This isn't Hitler's car, exactly. Not least because, presumably, he'd have been a shoddy with the repayments after April 1945. But it's the car that supported the disarmingly Nazi buttocks of no one's favourite Fuhrer on several occasions. And it's up for auction.
It is, to be precise, the 1939 Fiat 2800 used by the king of Italy to transport such pleasant dignitaries as Hitler, Benito Mussolini and General Franco during the early 1940s.
The Torpedo is being put up for auction by Coys, and is expected to fetch more than £250,000. That hefty price tag is partly because of the Hitler Effect (a frankly awful name for a thrash metal band, incidentally), but also the Fiat's rarity: just 12 Torpedos were ever built in the convertible ‘drophead' style, of which no more than half are believed to survive today.
The Fiat 2800 was introduced in 1938 and targeted at the, er, European elite of the period. Just 624 cars were built before production ceased in 1943 (some sort of big war, apparently?), all of which were powered by a 2.9-litre V6 putting out a heady 85bhp.
If this is the centrepiece that your shiny collection of deeply disturbing Nazi memorabilia needs, head on over to Monaco on May 18.
Want to comment on this?
£2000 scrappage money, anyone?
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Ein Reich, eine Leute, Ein Auto!! Well, not Ein Auto, exactly. His actual own car was some huge Mercedes. Surely that belongs in a museum, as a reason not to buy 4-Seat cabrios?
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I wonder if he has some kind of sports car, some Merc perhaps? Being a German and all...
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Hitler in a Fiat? Yeah right. I've seen pigs fly. Well, actually I just saw a pic of the Floyd pig on the loose in '78, but heigh ho. Still, not very credible.
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Perhaps it should be the new Pope car... How topical is that!
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Hitler hated 'elite' cars, especially Mercedes (one of many very good reasons not to like the man) and considered himself a 'man of his people' , thus the sale of this car with a Hitler effect premium is utterly facile, more fool the idiot that buys it for such a price.
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I'm sorry, but this isn't the Hitller's car! This is, read the chassis number please, the 2800 torpedo assigned to Prince Umberto II, son of the italian King Vittorio Emanuele III. He and his family used it to escape from Rome to Pescara in the september 1943. During the WWII, a U.S. V Army General requisitioned it and gave it to the countess of Pistoia after the war. She donated it to the italian government in the 1947.
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Probably you made a mistake because the Fiat 2800 torpedo looks like the Lancia Astura "ministeriale", even if it's different. In fact the Lancia was a 2.6 liter V8, with a torpedo body too. Hitler was guest on board of the car with the plate Roma62388, a Pininfarina coachwork, during his visit in Rome and Naples in 1938. After the sign of the "Steel pact", Mussolini gave the Astura to Hitler as a present. Hitler came back in Germany carrying the Lancia on his armoured train. Actually the Lancia is part of the Bernie Ecclestone collection. Pininfarina restored the car last year.
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AshHorne commented on this article
11 May 2009
Is it wrong that I want it to be bought by a drifting enthusiast and watch it go sideways everywhere like a touring car-spec 1950's Jag? It's what Hitler would have wanted if he were alive today. :)
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