As the seasons and the colours of the leaves are changing, autumn has finally come … White Autumn, to be precise. I am, of course, not referring to premature snowfall, but the colour of the Mercedes C111, the only colour this extremely rare car ever existed in, named after and in colour reminiscent of a type of German wine (Weißherbst) from the Mercedes factory region. But unlike the one-colour-only DeLorean, the C111 wasn´t a production car and unlike the Vision One-Eleven, no design study either. Quite down to earth, as Mercedes was back in the day, it was a testbed for alternative engine options like the Wankel rotary engines, which proved too unreliable due to wear to make it into production Mercs. And yet this picked up both on traditional Mercedes design elements like the 300 SL´s gullwing doors and latest fashions like pop-up headlights.

What Norev replicate here is the second generation of the C111, and you have to give them credit for having captured the shape and colour of the car really nicely. The edges at the A-pillars are remarkably sharp for a diecast metal car when we are being told that plastic can do this better (and would be more correct as the C111´s body was originally glass fibre). The air intakes behind the doors cannot be opened for real, but they are painted in the same matte black as the rear and front lids to create the illusion well enough. The three-pointed star front and rear are photoetched. The front corners´ indicators´ and taillights´ lenses are very well patterned and replicate mounting screws, with the sharply divided rears having light bulbs in each chamber, just like on the fog lights and the pop-up headlights that can be snappily operated by a switch underneath the front.

The wheels represent the rims well enough, unfortunately, without valves and with some rather simple brakes visible through the five spokes, but the tires are branded as the Dunlop Racing rubbers with which Mercedes put the car through its paces at Nürburgring, with Mercedes adamant they would not return to racing. Please note that the wheels are sprung on all four corners, which might account for the ride height being a little too high.

While the front´s lower section is not perforated, and the rear´s slats are convincing, but with a solid black plate behind it, both hoods have photoetched, perforated metal, allowing one to see the dual radiator fans in the front and the engine in the rear. Underneath the front hood that stays open without using the prop-rod, you find some tech and wiring underneath the mono-wiper and a boxed warning triangle next to the strapped-down unbranded spare tire.

The rear is far more interesting. It does not open on the same collapsing opening rod, but this rod is present and functional in a non-collapsing version. Removing the carpeted boot-tub fully reveals the four-rotor version of the Wankel rotary engine tested in this car, including the bay being open at the bottom to admire the axle and transmission. Of course, it does not offer as much detail as an LCD Pagani´s, but aptly for this car, it is anything but a shallowly moulded tray, allowing the observer the recognize how compact it is. The removable tub was an afterthought by Mercedes, trying to create luggage space. Like the engine, this concept failed the practicality tests, with butter melting from the engine heat.

Accessing the fully carpeted interior through the gullwing doors, we hardly notice the absence of the gas-struts. We have seen on all 300 SL models how this is hard to replicate. Everything is so finely detailed, from the legible gauge cluster to the centre console with its AC, uprightly mounted radio and testing car´s electricity-kill-button to the air-vents, speakers, seat patterns and harness-locks that you are prepared to forgive Norev that the rubber seatbelts themselves appear unduly thick, while the doors have fabric loops in addition to delicate doors handles to help close them when seated. This was not a stripped track-only car, but tested for roadworthiness in Mercedes comfort.

Although the C111´s tested engines ultimately failed to meet the raised bar of Mercedes standards and hence did not make it into their flagship production cars, this model of an iconic exotic is as much worth having as a piece of automotive history as Mercedes´orginial “tricycle”. It will easily be and remain the only model in your entire collection with a Wankel rotary engine and all these years (55 in fact!) later conveys 70s spirited poster star vibes. Otherwise, Mercedes would not have picked up on its design with its Vision One-Eleven.