New Zealand’s own Monster Mercedes

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It is always nice to receive a photo with that one question: do you have any idea what this is? In the case of the vehicle in the attached photos, we nearly choked on our coffee - what on earth was that!

It turned out to be a Mercedes-based oddity known in New Zealand as ‘Darcy’s Monster’ and named after its own Doctor Frankenstein, Darcy Nicholson. Nicholson was a fireman and avid promoter of prewar vehicles, who is said to have taken his inspiration for this monstrous Mercedes from Count Zborowski’s cars.

The car is believed to be a WW1 German staff car, built around 1914, which arrived in New Zealand in 1928. It was still in reasonably good condition when Nicholson traded in a 3-litre Bentley for it in the mid-1950s. The mighty Mercedes was reportedly equipped with a 7-litre Daimler-Knight sleeve-valve engine, but when the block cracked our man decided to change all that. He had heard of another WW1 Mercedes engine lying in a hangar and went to investigate. It turned out that he was right: there was indeed another WW1 Mercedes engine in the south of NZ but, this one was an almost unique 24-litre design for use in a Zeppelin!

Nicholson nevertheless saw a challenge and set about the daring task of mating engine and car. No doubt a lot of work had to be done on the chassis, which for a start had to be lengthened. When it turned out that the crazy plan was indeed possible, Nicholson continued by also fabricating a body. And he finished it off and got it running, which must have been quite an experience with those straight-through exhausts! The car is now on display in the Southward Car Museum in Paraparaumu and a sign next to it dryly states: ‘This vehicle backfired and blew out all the windows at the Timaru Fire Station’.

The car’s original 7-litre engine and its body were reportedly discarded ‘beside the Saltwater Creek bridge on the southern outskirts of Timaru’, according to a 1999 report. Oh, and that made us think of this one once again…

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures Beaded Wheels, stuff.co.nz.

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