If you love Mercedes-Benz then you’ll really appreciate this video.
Jonny Smith and his Late Brake Show is invited for a tour of a stunning private museum entirely populated by classic Mercedes. The man behind this beautiful obsession is Danny Lucas who, as you can imagine, is nothing short of Mercedes mad. Despite being called Lucas, he’s clearly more of a Bosch electrics man. This place is not a public museum, it is a completely private Car Cave that exists in plain sight behind blank roller shutter doors.
Danz Benz is the name of his collection, and Danny has channelled his adoration for classic Mercs and business of shop fitting to create a space like Jonny has never seen outside of Stuttgart. Open the door and we are greeted by resin floors, vivid spotlights and rows of curated cars from the 1960s to the 1990s. Actually, the earliest is 1880s, because Danny even has a functioning replica of the first car – the patented 1886 Carl Benz “vehicle powered by a gas engine”. Please see the chapters for each vehicle featured in this episode. This was a very special shoot, because Jonny was granted full access to the museum for the day. Danny’s enthusiasm for the cars he grew up seeing and aspiring to own bled through in every conversation. Each car in the museum was chased down and bought for its condition or backstory. Danny didn’t go down the predictable AMG path, instead he picked immaculate examples with odd specifications or back stories. He has Sir Stirling’s 1990 SL500, the founder of the Jubilee Clip’s S-class 450SEL, a 1970s SLC rally car that rekindled Merc’s racing division (more of which in a future episode), a line of early SLs and a mezzanine full of ’80s Mercs. This is how many of us dream of presenting our worshipped favourite machines, yet Danny ensures they are all on the button and road legal. He can even get any of them out within 20 minutes. The museum has glass cabinets with early MB artefacts and accessories. It felt like someone had bought the Stuttgart Mercedes museum and shipping it back to Kent. See this link for a tour https://www.danzbenz.com/collection
If you do not have the patience to watch the entire video here are the sections you can skip to, to hear about the specific cars featured:
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:19 the secret door
1:43 Supported by EBC Brakes
2:11 World’s first car – 1886 Benz
5:27 1975 450SLC rally car
7:00 W123 230TE Service mechanic car
9:07 Danny’s kiddie car SL
10:05 Concours SL Pagoda
12:04 R107 300SL
13:35 Stirling Moss’ 1990 R129 500 SL
15:59 Valtteri Bottas borrowed his car
17:03 How the museum was built
18:02 100kg giant Merc star hanging above!
18:48 W109 300 SEL 3.5 V8
20:38 W116 450 SEL V8
21:05 Owned by inventor of Jubilee clip!
23:55 All cars on the button
24:35 1980s upstairs area
25:21 US spec W126 turbo diesel
27:39 W126 560SEL
28:43 W126 380SEL base model
29:53 C126 560SEC
30:41 C124 230CE
31:44 Merc 500E
34:31 ‘Baby Benz’ & Bruno Sacco shrine
37:23 Outro chat
What a great video. We hoped you enjoyed it. What is your favourite Mercedes-Benz of all time?
