New Mercedes RaceTruck

20. July 2009As a matter of fact – there is a brand new Mercedes RaceTruck, based on the latest generation of Actros. But there is a snag to it: the racer hasn’t got an adequate “heart”, unfortunately it’s only a show truck. It was Horst Struve, chief mechanic, safety inspector and QMP for the Mercedes Benz subsidiary Aix-la-Chapelle / Eschweiler who had the idea to construct this beauty. The authorized dealer’s commercial vehicles section was moved from Aix-la-Chapelle to a new industrial estate in Eschweiler some months ago. This complex built on a vast area could serve as an exemplary project for future branches in Europe. There is a big completely glazed show-room and there are separate workshops for transporters, buses and heavy duty trucks, where even vehicles of 40 tons GVW together with their trailers are hoisted by huge lifting platforms for repair and maintenance works. And what’s more, the drivers can also have their trucks worked on during their statutory periods of rest. While diligent mechanics are busily engaged in fixing the vehicles, the truckers can rest in ‘First Class’ relaxation rooms equipped with beds, separate bathrooms and TV sets.
And when now the question came up of how to introduce to the customers all partners involved here in Eschweiler, they thought it would be too mundane just to stick the companies’ logos and names on a wall, as usual – they wanted to do something special. That’s when Horst Struve brought the RaceTruck up. After all, for as long as anyone can remember racing cars were also called ‘advertising columns on wheels’. And of course on vehicles as big as a RaceTruck company labels can be placed much more noticeable than on small F1 racers.
A ‘veteran’ Mercedes RaceTruck was not available on short notice, and so they decided to construct their on truck, based on the latest Actros generation. Hahn Racing – as we all know Jochen Hahn built the last Mercedes RaceTrucks – contributed several plastic parts of the Mercedes racing outfit, and now the eye-catcher ‘Race Actros’ welcomes the visitors in Eschweiler as soon as they enter the site through the big gate for the trucks.
But of course the idea to build a RaceTruck did not come to Horst Struve’s mind by chance, because he really is an old hand at truck racing. In the nineties he belonged to the team of Reinhilde Braun. There he constructed the Mercedes RaceTruck the woman from Aix-la-Chapelle roughed up the male world with. Later, in 1996, Minna Kuoppola – in a female dominated team with Reinhilde Braun as their boss – drove many a male pilot to utter despair. A little later Konrad Hahn, the present boss of Team Hahn Racing, had a serious accident in Zolder in the last truck built by Struve – thus we have come full circle.
And that with regard to the racing activities of Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles the wheel will also turn full circle in the near future, that’s something not only Horst Struve hopes for. Day in, day out he and his colleagues in the subsidiary witness how fascinated the visitors are by the RaceTruck sitting at the entrance of their business premises.
And when the chief mechanic calls it a day and leaves the site, he can time and again watch children who have pedalled into the industrial estate by bike for the sole purpose of taking photos of each other standing in front of the Race Actros.