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Author: Simon Mones
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In Essen's Baldeneysee, the fire brigade and DLRG have found four car wrecks. Some of them had been lying on the bottom of the lake for decades. How they got there, no one knows.
In movies, there is often a treasure at the bottom of a lake, full of gold. The fire brigade and DLRG have also made a surprising find during a rescue exercise on Lake Baldeney in Essen: four cars that have already been recovered.
In addition to a Smart, the rescuers also recovered a Mercedes Strich 8, an old Fiat 500 and an Opel Kapitän (built in 1951-53). "How the vehicles got into the lake is still not known today," writes the Essen fire brigade on Facebook. Only in the case of the Smart it seems clear that it was stolen in 2018, as reported by Bild.
Cars recovered from Essen's Baldeneysee – Opel Kapitän lay aground for 60 years
Apart from the Smart, the vehicles have probably spent a long time on the bottom of Lake Baldeney. In the case of the Opel Kapitän, the fire brigade assumes about 60 years. The classic car is now so rusty that it broke during salvage.
+The Smart was stolen in Essen in 2018 and has now been recovered from Lake Baldeney.
© Essen Fire Brigade
And the Mercedes Dash 8 could also have spent around 50 years under water, as fire department spokesman Dominik Wirth told Bild. In the case of the Fiat 500, it can also be assumed that it has spent several decades in Lake Baldeney. In contrast to the Opel, however, this one is still well preserved. This even applies to the sticker of the main inspection, which has been due since 1978. However, the police have not yet been able to identify an owner. The car simply does not appear in the systems, paper documents from the road traffic office are now supposed to help.
The ten rarest cars in the world – and what they cost
Uhlenhaut Coupé: No other car in the world is more expensive than the Mercedes 300 SLR Coupé, named after engineer and Daimler-Benz board member Rudolf Uhlenhaut. It fetched 135 million euros at auction. Another example of the 302 hp car from 1955, which was designed for car racing but never used, is on display (without engine) in the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. © Mercedes-Benz AG – Communicati
Ferrari 250 GTO: Just 39 of these racing cars were produced from 1962 to 1964. At the time, the coupe with a 301 hp V12 engine cost 18,000 US dollars – a few years ago, a copy piloted by Stirling Moss fetched over 38 million dollars at auction. Another car is said to have been sold privately for $70 million. © Simon West/Imago
Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato: 20 copies of the lighter and improved version of the normal DB4 were produced at the beginning of Aston Martin in the early 60s. One of the 314 hp coupes with a lot of aluminum parts was recently auctioned for 14.3 million dollars. © Ingo Wagner
Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing: Mercedes built 1,400 coupés and 1,858 roadsters from 1954 to 1963 – the earlier, closed version with the characteristic upward-swinging doors is therefore the rarer and also higher traded. The previous auction maximum price of the up to 240 hp six-cylinder sports car is 4.62 million dollars. © Oscar Gonzalez/Imago
Lamborghini VenenoLamborghini Veneno: The extreme sports car, named after a fighting bull (as usual with the VW subsidiary), was only built five times since 2013. The performance of the V12 engine is not particularly spectacular with 740 hp, but the roadster easily found its buyers for the 4.5 million dollars called. © Lamborghini
Maybach ExeleroMaybach Exelero: A lot of things were different in 2005. The Mercedes-Benz Group was still called DaimlerChrysler, Maybach acted as an independent brand – and built this version of the luxury sedan with a 700 hp V12 engine for the tire manufacturer Fulda. According to rumors, a US rapper bought the one-of-a-kind song, which was seen from time to time in TV series and music videos, for eight million US dollars. © Mercedes-Benz
Jaguar XKSSJaguar XKSS: Only 16 examples of this 237 hp roadster were built by the British in 1956 and 1957. Hollywood star Steve McQueen bought one for a comparatively ridiculous 5,000 dollars, the value of this particular example is now estimated at 30 million dollars. However, bargain hunters can shoot the "Jag" for as little as 1.5 million. © Daniel Prest/Imago
Ferrari Testa RossaFerrari 250 Testa Rossa: The racing car was built 1957 times from 1961 to 390 in various variants and with up to 34 hp. The now legendary name stands for the red cylinder heads. The most expensive copy to date was auctioned for $39.8 million. © epa ansa Benvenuti/Ho
BMW 507BMW 507: The iconic roadster by designer Albrecht Graf von Goertz was produced only 1956 times between 1959 and 252. With 150 hp, it was inferior to its direct competitor, the open-top Mercedes SL 300, in terms of performance, but US stars such as Elvis Presley still grabbed it – his copy is now back in BMW's possession. The market value for well-maintained 507 is about two million dollars. © Imago
W Motors Lykan HyperSportW Motors Lykan HyperSport: The 7 hp super sports car, known from the movie "Furious 792", is the only non-European car on this list - it comes from Lebanon. Since 2012, it has been built seven times, and the price of 3.4 million dollars includes 420 diamonds on the headlights. © Ali Haider
Are there more wrecks on the bottom of Lake Baldeney?
There is good news: bodies were not found in the four cars. However, it is not yet clear whether there will be more vehicles at the bottom of Lake Baldeney. However, this is quite possible, as the DLRG has not yet searched the entire lake, as the WAZ reports. How quickly you end up in the water by car is shown by a case from the USA. There, a woman stubbornly followed the GPS and drove into the harbor basin.
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The recovered wrecks are now being examined by the police in the hope of shedding some light on the matter. So it remains exciting to see what happens next with the mysterious car finds.
Category list image: © Essen Fire Department
