German General Staff Car Mercedes-Benz

This car is an extremely rare one: a 1939 Mercedes-Benz G4 offroader in original condition, today owned by the Spanish royal family. The explicit restoration order placed with the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center was correspondingly unusual. The G4 was to be restored to a technically impeccable condition but was to retain its unique patina acquired in the course of its 66-year life. A first quick glance may therefore be irritating: Is this the result of three years of painstaking restoration? It is indeed, because the restorers deliberately refrained from removing the traces of use in the interior and minor blemishes in the bodywork. These traces and blemishes do, after all, testify to the G4’s history and authenticity.

The G4 owned by the Spanish royal family is one of just a few surviving units of this three-axle offroader – just three of the total of 57 units built in the 1930s are still being considered absolutely authentic. Additional units still exist yet without unambiguous proof of their originality. Before the G4 joined the royal fleet, it was used by General Franco who had been given this car as a present from Germany. During the past decades, the offroader was serviced and maintained by the Royal Guard in Madrid. The latter hold the classics in the royal fleet in high esteem. When it was decided to have the G4 restored by the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, together with an equally extraordinary car of its day and age, a Mercedes-Benz 770, the cars were given an almost ceremonial farewell in Madrid, and an armed escort accompanied the truck convoy to the French border. The cars arrived at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach near Stuttgart in September 2001. The large 770 limousine is still there, undergoing restoration. The work on the G4, completed in December 2004, is a present by Mercedes-Benz España to the Spanish royal family.

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