Originally Posted by
Master Oil Racing Team
The story about Flo's car reminded me of another story I posted somewhere about Dieter's Mercedes. It was kind of between red and burgundy and I think it was a 300, but not exactly sure. This was in February 1975 and Dieter was in the midst of putting together a speedway bike for a race coming up in a few days. He had cast some "pots" to hold water for cooling that would bolt on the block. As the races were short sprints, he designed the water reservoirs to cool without circulating. He also was having a faring made of fiberglass. We stopped what we were doing and went to some shops in another part of the city to check on work he had hired out.
We went to a couple of places, I forget to get what, then to an older section of town with buildings that had not been bombed down. We went up three stories to an apartment where the man was building the fiberglass faring. It was dark in the building and the central courtyard that the building surrounded was unkempt and rundown. There were not many people around. Then we went to a small shop not too far from there to check on a radiator that a guy was building for a GP bike. After that Dieter parked on Kurfurstendamm, one of the main streets in downtown Berlin while we went to several stores. I think he was picking up some stuff for Flo, We walked several blocks and then crossed the street before he got what he was looking for. Dieter was talking non stop about all the stuff he had to do and he was in a hurry to get back to the shop and work on that speedway bike.
As we walked back to where he parked the Mercedes, we recrossed the street and walked up to it, but before he stuck the key in the doorlock he paused. Then he looked across the roof at me and said :"This is not my car. Mine doesn't have these seat covers!" It had slip on thick wool seat covers. Not wool fabric after it had been spun and woven into a cloth, but the real wool with tanned hide just like it came off the sheep. He looked up and down the street for his car, and since everything looked much the same to me, I couldn't help. There were Mercedes' everywhere, and every so many meters were trees. There was not really any outstanding feature right around there like a fire station or statue that we cause us to remember, so we walked up and down Ku'damm looking for a reddish/burgundy Mercedes. After about ten minutes or so, and no luck, we went back to that first one. Dieter stuck the key in the lock and it opened. The ignition key worked and he drove to their house. When we got inside Dieter asked Flo "When did you get those seat covers?" Flo replied "About six months ago.":D