Strip the Mercedes-Benz T80 back to its specification sheet and the character is already there: 44520 cc Daimler-Benz DB 603 Supercharged V12, 3452 bhp @ 3,000 rpm. Mercedes-Benz built from 1939, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. The shape is credited to Ferdinand Porsche. 1 were built.
The background
The Mercedes-Benz T80 was a six-wheeled vehicle built by Mercedes-Benz, developed and designed by Ferdinand Porsche in the late 1930s. It was intended to break the world land speed record, but never made the attempt, due to the project having been overtaken by the outbreak of World War II.
The engineering
The engine is 44520 cc Daimler-Benz DB 603 Supercharged V12; the output is 3452 bhp @ 3,000 rpm. On the scales it comes to 2896 kg. Drive goes through a Single Speed Direct Drive. The wheelbase is 5128 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Mercedes-Benz line-up the Mercedes-Benz T80 has a clear place: it replaced the Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen; the factory was Stuttgart, Germany. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Lincoln Continental, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroën TUB. Its Mercedes-Benz stablemates include the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and the Mercedes-Benz C124.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Mercedes-Benz T80 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.