Interesting Facts about Mercedes-Benz 600

By admin, May 19, 2016 1:13 pm

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From 1963 to 1981, Mercedes built a mere 2677 600s. Only 428 of these were the famous Pullman model, essentially a long-wheelbase sedan. Three hundred four were standard four-doors, 124 were six-door jump-seat models; of this total, 59 were Landaulets, with convertible tops over the rear passengers. Forty-one were armored. One was built with a high roof for the Vatican. One coupe was built as a prototype in 1965. All hailder Grosser—we’ll not see its like again.

What isn’t widely known is the extent of the car’s ownership roster. On a 2009 episode of the British television show Top Gear, co-host James May rattled off the following list of confirmed 600 owners: Leonid Brezhnev, Fidel Castro, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Idi Amin Dada, Enver Hoxha, Hirohito, Saddam Hussein, Mao Tse Tung, and Marshal Josip Broz Tito. Other owners reportedly included Irish leader Éamon de Valera, Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Korean dingbats Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, Ferdinand Marcos, Deng Xiaoping, and Cambodian king Norodom Sihanouk. Time magazine says King Hussein of Jordan ordered one when new, as did Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus and Indonesian president Suharto.

But wait! There’s more! Confirmed celebrity owners include Elvis Presley, George Harrison, John Lennon, Hugh Hefner, Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay (he bought Coco Chanel’s old car), and Jack Nicholson, who purchased his after driving it in The Witches of Eastwick. Harrison even bought Lennon’s old car when the latter moved to the United States from Britain, so he had two. Fancy, eh?