Looking for info about Gen. Burkhalter's staff car - Maybach Zeppelin

I know nothing!!

Jolly Joker... go count your money. ;-)

WmB

Send him to the Russian Front!!!

May not be much help, or possibly a new angle, but Maybach was known for high-revving diesel engines. The original engines in the Kraus Mafei diesel hydraulic locomotives imported to the US were Maybachs. They also were found on Zeppelin airships.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net (Mad Modeller) wrote in :

Yes, but Maybach also produced high-end luxury cars in the ca. 1920-1940 timeframe. The Maybach Zeppelin DS8 was a rival to the Mercedes 770 and Rolls-Royces of the time.

The Zeppelin normally didn't have six wheels.

Mercedes did build a six-wheeler:

which has been made into a 1/35 resin model (sorry, don't know who did it. Try finding 'Mercedes G4 31' on eBay)

HOOOOGAN.......! ! !

I will go to the Russian front only if I can take Heidi and Helga with me to keep me warm (:>

Thanks, the G4 W31 lead is already paying off dividends:

General info:

PLUS MODEL: Czech resin kit range had a new Mercedes-Benz G4 six wheel vehicle 1936.

That's more than I had before. When I first started looking for info on the General's car last year I thought I'd gopher up a decent amount of info about it. To me it's one of the more unique and recognizable TV cars of all time. The only info I came across pointed out that it was a Maybach made up to look like a Mercedes. That in itself raised questions as the Maybach is generally regarded as one of the finer big V-12 luxury touring models of its era. Why would they want to do that aside from the instant brand recognition among a large American audience with the Mercedes emblem? Well, only 57 examples of the Mercedes are known to exist and it looks like only one has survived in good shape - so that would be the reason why.

I do wonder if Desilu's prop dept converted the car or if it came to them from another source. Somewhere out there is an obscure magazine article or ex-Desilu employee with the asnwer. In the meantime, much thanks. I should be able to piece together enough parts to modify a Mercedes G4 into a Maybach - standing in for a Mercedes ;-)

WmB

I saw that info, but didn't really believe it. Only ~1800 Maybachs were ever made, about 10% of which survive today. Zeppelins change hands for $1M and more. OTOH, if you look at what was done with some Maybachs in the postwar years:

one might have ended up in drag...

Ya know what? Armed with those pics of the Mercedes G4 and freeze framing some shots of the Hogan's Heroes car on the PC in comparison - and I arrive at the conclusion that the guy that posted the info that the car is a Maybach was as wrong as wrong gets. Everything about the Hogan car looks like the G4 Merecedes - the shape of the front door, the vent outlines in the hood, the rear fender ribs, etc. - are all present on both the Hogan car and the real Mercedes.

And yet I can't find a single Maybach model that looks like a suitable jumping off point for a Mercedes conversion. Not to say it isn't out there, but by all indications it appears the Hogan staff car is either a real Mercedes or one helluva a good piece of customizing. Which means my path to duplicating the TV is at least a little more straightforward than it first appeared.

I just need to find a G4 W31 kit or enough information to scratch build something. The latter would be a long... long... long term project, but if I had to choose a car type to attempt it with, it would probably be the old bathtub style bodied coaches and cabriolets of the 1930s.

WmB