Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Yesterday we saw more evidence of what happens when a German car takes on PCH Superpower Italy in a Choose Your Eternity challenge: a 68-32 drubbing of the BMW by the Ferrari. Going up against a Superpower is no picnic, but we're going to give Germany another shot at a stunning upset today. Who will triumph, the Benz or the Lambo? Which one do you want more? Which one scares you more? Mix those two factors together and you'll know what to do!
The Mercedes-Benz 600 may well be the ultimate vintage German land yacht; the list of 600 owners includes such luminaries as Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Leonid Brezhnev, and John Lennon. In 1972, the four-door Pullman 600 listed at $37,928, or about $199,000 in 2008 dollars… but why limit yourself to a proletarian four doors? You're a high roller! A whale! Your entourage is so big (and so heavily armed) that only six doors will do, and we've found just what you need: this 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman six-door limousine, priced so low that you'll still have enough cash left to stock it with champagne and Eastern European prostitutes. We may not even be justified in calling an easy restoration like this a project- after all, the seller claims it's 100% complete (though those parts that are "off the car" may have wandered off during its 15 years of storage). Whoa, did we say "15 years of storage?" Sure, sure, you might have to fiddle with the hydraulic system for decades a day or two, since everything on the car is hydraulically operated- including the windows and doors- and the seals have definitely could have gone bad while the car sat waiting for you to come rescue it. The engine is a smaller version of the famous 6.9 V8, which means you'll have the opportunity to turn large amounts of cash into engine parts from Germany… but hey, there's no way in hell maybe the engine will fire right up!
While the 600 is pretty fast- in the same way that a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is "pretty fast"- it's not quite what you'd call a sporty car. Let's say you want a project that will be lots of fun on twisty roads after you by some miracle get it fixed up? Something with a high-strung small-displacement V8 and that legendary Italian shoddy build quality passion we all love so much? That's right- we're talking about this 1975 Lamborghini Urraco, which is priced at a very un-Lambo-esque $26,500. We know, there are some who say the Urraco isn't a "real" Lamborghini, but they're the same ones who say herpes isn't a "real" STD," so pay 'em no mind! Now, this here Urraco seems pretty solid; the owner claims it's "WITHOUT ANY RUST, MOTOR SOUNDS EXCELLENT," and the only problem seems to be a bad clutch. You think anything else might be wrong? We don't! Put in a new clutch and get ready for years of trouble-free daily driving, we say!