31 January 2022
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Autocult 1969 Mercedes-Benz C 101
PRICE: £103.99
REF: 06049
SCALE: 1/43
The story begins in 1961. At the management level of Mercedes-Benz, the new engine concept of the rotary piston engine was coming more and more to the fore.
Ultimately, Mercedes Benz decided to conclude a license agreement with Felix Wankel that allowed the use of his engine. Parallel to the research and development of the rotating combustion engine, the first thoughts came to fruition internally as to which cars, labelled with the star, should be equipped with the Wankel engine in the future. Although the Mercedes technicians mastered a number of technical hurdles and developed the concept well, they did not succeed in handling the major difficulties - ostensibly the high fuel consumption and the poor exhaust gas values.
At the end of 1968, the decision was made that the new engine should be tested for the first time in a small sports car. The original project name was C 101, but due to an international agreement in favour of Peugeot, which had claimed all three-digit nomenclatures with a "0" as the central number, the project became known as C 111 - so now you know how that famous project started, with this 'basic' prototype.
The car was powered be a three-disc engine with a displacement of 600cc each and a total output of 280 hp. Initially shaken down with rudimentary at Hockenheim in April 1969, for the first test drive proper, the team of engineers went back there three months later, with the car as it is modelled here.
AutoCult's resincast fills a gap in the timeline of the C 111 programme - all four production generations have already been crafted in 1/43, so now we have the full story available. It is, of course, an exquisite replica. AutoCult never let us down - the finish is excellent and the attention to detail is truly wonderful , with the finesse of the fins to the nose being a great example. Simply splendid.