1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K Streamline Roadster By Erdmann & Rossi

Mercedes commissioned Erdmann & Rossi to produce a special show car for the 1935 Barcelona exhibition based upon their 500K. One of the visitors was King Ghazi of Iraq, who expressed his desire to buy the car and MB built another (540K) car powered by a Straight 8-cyl 5018cc supercharged (180hp) engine with a 4/5-speed manual transmission as a special order and the car was shipped to Iraq.

h/t: vintag.es

Unfortunately the reign of the young king was short-lived as he died in a car accident in 1939. The car survived the Gulf war and World War II, and was found in an underground storage facility in Baghdad, but finally ending up in Jordon. In 1986 under the instructions of King Hussein of Jordon the car was shipped to Germany for restoration.

In 2002, the car was believed to be back in Jordan but by 2008, the car was back in Germany and finally on display in the Technik Museum Speyer.