Top Marques announces for release in April of this year two Mercedes-Benz “muscle cars” in 1:43, namely the Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC Lorinser from 1987, and the Mercedes-Benz CL600 7.0 AMG from 1998.
The models will be available in the following colours:
- - For the 560SEC Lorinser: silver, black, white,
- - For the CL600 7.0 AMG: green, silver, red, black, and white.
The price of the models is around 90€ each (plus S&H, if applicable).
And now, for a lighter touch:
The news about new 1:43 Mercedes-Benz models are quite few at the moment, so let us take a little look back in time:
The Horsey-Horseless (1899).
On both sides of the Atlantic, the end of the nineteenth century saw a proliferation of inventors who came out with sometimes the weirdest ideas in those early years of what was soon to be known as the “automobile” but was still called a “horseless carriage”.
The 1899 Horsey-Horseless is one of those early models. Its defining feature was a large fake horse head at the front. This was during the transition from horse-drawn buggies to cars, so the designer thought that it would help calm oncoming live horses, and to prevent them from panicking at the sight of the horseless carriages, as happened quite a bit, apparently. He also recommended storing additional fuel in a hollowed-out portion of the horse head, which just seems like a dangerous and ill-conceived plan anyway.
Others claimed mischievously that the horse head was actually there to calm the passenger. At least, if a passenger
missed the comforting sight of a horse’s rear end, he would feel better with a horse’s neck in front of him…
In any event, the inventor was a certain Mr. Uriah Smith (May 3, 1832 – March 6, 1903), a “Seventh-day Adventist” minister, educator, and theologian who also was an extremely versatile and creative individual. Some of his lesser known contributions include his work as a poet, hymn writer, inventor, and engraver. He not only patented the “Horsey-Horseless”, but an artificial leg with a moveable ankle, a school desk with an improved folding seat, and several other inventions and improvements.
Anyway, the Horsey-Horseless design was patented not on April 1st, but on April 11th, 1899. How many - if any at all - were built, we shall never know…
(с)BERND D. LOOSEN
