Press Release

1960 – Mercedes-Benz 300 d landaulet

Thirty years after the handing over of the Rome Vehicle, Mercedes-Benz renewed its relations with the Holy See by presenting the pope with a modern automobile. This car from the contemporary model range was a Mercedes-Benz 300 d (W 189 series) with extended wheelbase. It was handed over in winter 1960 to Pope John XXIII in the coach houses of the papal fleet.

Despite the winter weather, the Holy Father was thus able to admire the car’s complete appointments including the soft-top mechanism. Unlike the 1930 limousine, the Vatican’s second Mercedes-Benz had been given a landaulet bodywork. This type of bodywork – with a hard-top above the front seats and a soft-top above the rear seats – was the classic choice for representative, chauffeur-driven limousines. The wheelbase was extended by 450 millimeters to give the car an overall length of 5.6 meters. And as compared to the production cars, the Mercedes-Benz 300 d was also slightly higher.

The popemobile was powered by the production engine of the W 189. The six-cylinder in-line unit with a total displacement of three liters developed 160 hp which were transmitted to the road by a three-speed automatic. When required, the popemobile was capable of dashing along at a top speed of 160 km/h, but most of the time, the car rolled along at a dignified pace on official occasions. Then the side windows in the rear could be removed completely with the soft-top opened, and stored in specially installed brackets in the trunk. Unlike the removable rear windows, the partition window between the front and rear compartments and the front-door windows were electrically operated. The locks for the soft-top mechanism were accessible from the driver’s seat, and the soft-top itself could be opened and closed in just a few seconds. Upon opening the rear doors, running boards were automatically extended from underneath the vehicle floor to facilitate the pope’s boarding and alighting.

During the handing-over ceremony, Pope John XXIII went into the relations between the Vatican and Mercedes-Benz since 1930 and blessed the car before setting out on a first trial run which left him totally enthusiastic about the car’s appointments. The layout of the seats in the rear corresponded to that of the Rome Vehicle of 1930, with a throne-chair for the Supreme Pontiff arranged in the direction of travel and two folding seats for the pope’s escorts at the partition from the front seats. But while Pope Pius XI merely had had a panel with seven ivory switches to convey a few commands to his driver, the papal chair in the Mercedes-Benz 300 d was surrounded by controls for the air conditioning, two-way radio and other functions.

The pope’s seat was electrically adjustable for reach as well as for backrest angle. For Pope John XIII, however, it was important to be chauffeured in the new popemobile not only in a seated position. Sturdy grab handles were fitted to the partition of the 300 d to support the pope when standing upright in the car and blessing the faithful on the move. After a short trial run in the Cortile di San Damaso, the Holy Father praised the exemplary way in which his wishes concerning a car with soft-top and removable side windows in the rear had been fulfilled.

1965 – Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman landaulet

In response to this praise, landaulet bodywork was also chosen for the next Mercedes-Benz for the pope. The Mercedes-Benz Nürburg 460 and the 300 d had served several popes, among other things for trips to the summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. And it was to this place that Pope Paul VI invited a high-ranking delegation from Daimler-Benz in the fall of 1965 for the handing-over of a new popemobile – a Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman landaulet – to the Vatican. The special version of this representative limousine for the Vatican had been created in a cooperative effort of the Sindelfingen-based test and production departments.

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Daimler-Benz AG Dr. Hermann Josef Abs, chairman of the Board of Management Walter Hitzinger, members of the Board of Management Professor Fritz Nallinger and Arnold Wychodil, Director Karl Wilfert and three members of staff from the Daimler-Benz plant in Sindelfingen had accompanied the four-door landaulet to Italy. Together with representatives of Mercedes-Benz Italy, the guests from Stuttgart handed over the automotive present to the pope.

This special car for the Vatican was based on the Mercedes-Benz 600 from the W 100 series with long wheelbase (3900 millimeters). Compared to the production version, the equipment had been modified extensively. The rear doors were 256 millimeters wider and directly adjoined the front doors. And the rear doors were also given new controls so as to be easier to reach from the pope’s centrally arranged individual seat. The roof of the Pullman landaulet was raised by 70 millimeters to provide adequate headroom. This had become necessary because the vehicle floor was level in the rear with the transmission tunnel vanishing underneath.

The Holy Father was enthusiastic about the W 100’s high technical standard. “The name Mercedes has become a byword for German diligence and German efficiency throughout the world. This is why your gift is all the more appreciated by us,” Paul VI praised the automotive engineering feat from Stuttgart (mind the sovereign’s pluralis majestatis!). The car‘s special equipment included, among other things, a cooling system, two-way radio for communication with the driver and a multiply-adjustable single seat in the rear. For the pope’s escorts, however, there were still only folding seats facing rearward.

Today, the Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman landaulet with the legendary registration SCV 1 is displayed in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Untertürkheim. The registration SCV stands for “Stato Città del Vaticano” and the number one identifies the pope’s official car at any one time.

1966 – Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL landaulet

The proven landaulet principle was adopted for another car for the Holy See as early as one year after the handing over of the Mercedes-Benz 600 to Pope Paul VI. This time, the basis for the car was the W 109 series. The Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL sedan with standard wheelbase (2850 millimeters) was converted into a popemobile with a single seat that was adjustable toward the right to provide space for an escort on a folding seat at the partition.

This car was used parallel to the landaulet from the W 100 series for a long time. The appointments of the 300 SEL were not quite as luxurious as those of the Mercedes-Benz 600 and did not include air conditioning, for instance, but the car was retrofitted with armoring in 1981.

1967 – Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL

The two limousines from the W 109 series supplied by Mercedes-Benz to the Vatican in spring 1967 were 650 millimeters longer than the production version. The 300 SEL Pullman limousines had wider doors in the rear and occasional seats in the direction of travel. Unlike the landaulets, the two six-seater cars with a 3500-millimeter wheelbase were not used for official occasions but, first and foremost, as means of transport for the Vatican’s high-ranking guests.

1980 – Mercedes-Benz 230 G with special superstructure

This vehicle was the epitome of the popemobile for many years: the Mercedes-Benz 230 G in mother-of-pearl livery accompanied Pope John Paul II on his numerous travels throughout the world. Mercedes-Benz made the car available to the pope for the latter’s visit to Germany in late fall 1980 – initially on loan.

The G-Class (460 series/G 23) with long wheelbase was chosen as the basis because this popemobile also had to be capable of coping off the normal roads. In the design of the bodywork, the Mercedes-Benz development engineers broke new ground because classic bodywork designs such as the landaulet could hardly be combined with the basic offroader. Hence, Mercedes-Benz created a popemobile with a high transparent cupola made of plastic, under which the pope traveled either seated or standing. The cupola had been designed so as to be removable in fine weather but after the attempt on Pope John Paul II’s life in 1981, the plastic cupola remained in place at all times for security reasons.

A high-performance automatic climate control system for the rear of the popemobile created agreeable temperatures in the Holy Father’s compartment in the summer and prevented the cupola from misting up in rainy weather and in conditions of high air humidity. In addition, spotlights were recessed into the sides, floor and roof of the cupola to shed indirect and direct light on the pope so as to make him easily visible also in the dark.

As in the Mercedes-Benz landaulets, the floor in the rear was raised. Whereas this measure merely covered the transmission tunnel in the passenger cars, the floor in the G-Class was raised by as much as 40 centimeters, thereby creating a veritable platform for the pope and his seat. Underneath this platform, batteries were accommodated which continuously fed the car’s extensive electric system independently of the generator. Among other things, the electric system operated the running boards whose steps were extended to make boarding and alighting easier for the Supreme Pontiff.

The G-Class with its two-level superstructure out of transparent plastic was the first popemobile designed in an entirely new form language. Alongside the cupola, this included the installation of a wall-to-wall seat bench in the rear rather than a throne-chair – a detail feature Pope John Paul II had insisted on. But not only the bodywork distinguished the new popemobile from the Vatican’s traditional state limousines: the G-Class was not painted black but in the pope’s colors, white and gold. The mother-of-pearl livery was complemented by anodized gold-colored decorative trim and brass sections. In the interior, the specialists in Sindelfingen used white wool velour and white leather.

In the spring of 1982, Mercedes-Benz gave the G-Class manufactured in 1980 as a present to the Vatican for the papal fleet. And a second identical car was built for the Holy Father. The more recent popemobile based on the Mercedes-Benz 230 GE (460 series/GE 23) had the registration SCV 6, while its somewhat older twin, based on the 230 G, usually had the registration SCV 7.

The G-Class cars developed 100 hp and 125 hp, respectively, from their four-cylinder engines with 2.3-liter displacement. An automatic transmission transferred engine power to the road. The car - 4392 millimeters long, 1950 millimeters wide and some 2800 millimeters high – was given a particularly comfortable springing for the pope to be safe and protected against vibrations even off the normal road. In 1983 and 1985, the equipment of the G-Class cars was modified by Mercedes-Benz to meet the Vatican’s more stringent safety requirements.

For the pope’s visit to Austria in 1983, a specific exterior detail feature of the car was modified in that the Mercedes star on the radiator grill was replaced by the Puch badge. It was, after all, under this brand name that the G-Class, a joint product of Mercedes-Benz and Magna Steyr, was marketed in Austria. The Mercedes-Benz concept of an offroader with transparent safety superstructure was adopted in subsequent years by other manufacturers to make locally manufactured vehicles available to the pope on his travels.