G4 Restoration

1 reply [Last post]
Sun, 06/02/2005 - 21:04
JMKOZ
JMKOZ's picture
Offline
Joined: 28.03.2004
Location: Melbourne Australia

I found this article on the G4 interesting so thought I would share. The site itself has some pretty interesting stuff on a variety of things - worth a look. http://www.gizmag.com.au/go/3663/

John

Top
Sun, 06/02/2005 - 22:46
#1
mortinson
mortinson's picture
Offline
Joined: 06.11.2003
Location: Old beehive, Madrid, Spain
G4 Restoration

Excellent article! Many thanks.

Only a few comments:

The article fails to mention that the car was obviously a gift from Hitler to General Franco, who used it for hunting big game. One of the other 3 or 4 surviving G4s is precisely that of the Führer. Another famous recipient of a G4 was Benito Mussolini il Duce but this one is, regrettably, disappeared.

The car is NOT owned by the Spanish Royal family. Our Royal family has the very democratic custom of not owning a great deal of things and when they receive a state present they would typically give it to the Spanish State for the enjoyment of the people (some not very charitable voices claim that this is in order to avoid incurring in the running expenses). The G4 is owned by Patrimonio Nacional (National Estates) together with the W770 grosser currently under restoration in Germany. Both were owned by Franco and a few years after his death his (very hated) widow claimed before the Spanish courts that the car was privately owned by her husband and not in his role as head of state and demanded the cars to be returned to her with thankfully no success whatsoever.

If you'd like to know a little bit more about the G4 and the other forefathers of the G-Wagen, I have a webpage about this subject:

http://mercedesgwagen.galeon.com/vacaciones751461.html

Regards,

Top