T-80

index of sculptures 1988 to 2023

T-80

2011
Bas-relief in salvaged wood #78, 267 x 112 x 16cm.
Concordia Collection, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

World famous auto racer Hans Stuck persuaded Mercedes-Benz to build him a car for an attempt on the world land speed record. The project, officially sanctioned by Hitler himself, started in 1937. Designer Dr. Ferdinand Porsche targeted a speed of 465 mph. But the car was fated never to run at this velocity. And in fact no car with a conventional engine ever did. Hans Stuck would have driven the T80 over a special stretch of the Dessau Autobahn. The attempt was set for the January 1940 ‘Rekord Woche’, but the outbreak of WWII intervened; the event was cancelled and the T80 garaged. It took until 1964 for Art Alfons to surpass the T80’s target speed when he reached 544 mph in the turbojet-powered ‘Green Monster’. 
(source: wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_T80)