I’m offering a vintage miniature Mercedes 300SL amusement park car, that I’ve owned since about 2005. It’s made by the Gebrüder Ihle from Bruchsal in Germany at the mid/end of 1950’s. The car is complete, but has at some point been given a Honda 4-stroke engine instead of the original 6.5hp 2-stroke Hirth engine. I’ve not tried to start the car, since it had been stored in a barn for a long time already before I found it. The car is about 8ft long and 3.6ft wide.
The Gebr. Ihle company has a quite interesting history: Before WW2 they built full-sized sports and racing cars, among others, custom bodies for BMW and Fiat. After WW2 they went to build mini cars for amusement. A couple of different models were made and this car was modeled after a Mercedes 300SL of the early 1950’s. It has a fiberglass body, a full steel frame and rack and pinion steering connected to a beautiful art deco banjo style steering wheel. It has neither transmission nor suspension and axles are hard-mounted to the vehicle frame, cable-operated brakes are connected to the rear wheels only.
These cars were originally used in Schottenrings (amusement parks) in Germany built for affluent families so their children could drive miniature cars in miniature countryside settings, entire elaborate parks built with miniature buildings, roads and picket fences. Although as sturdily built as many of the roadgoing microcars, Ihle Schottenring cars were not equipped for legal highway use and they were lacking an electric starter, so park attendants push-started them for their customers.
I'm asking 8000 Euros for the car, It's located in Finland about 500km north of Helsinki. I can ship it to any port in the mainland Europe for about 600 Euros.
Enclosed some pictures, the blue one needing restoration is mine.
$9,500
Location, New York Mileage: Engine: Body Type: Convertible Interior: red Exterior: blue