Al,
Couple of things here you should know.
1. The p/u truck version of the Grand Mercedes 600 came in several versions, the first dubbed
Benzomino and the second,
El Benzo. It was done as a joke at first and came out of a cocktail napkin and beer discussion at the Lodestar fest some years back, from the M100 group. The joke of course was the 600 on which it was based, was the #1 vehicle to haul heads of state, royalty, etc. Making it into a pickup truck? That's pretty dark humor. Hauling a king, converted, hauling manure? Something almost all American made out of something almost all European? Then there is the reliability issue, also a joke. Pickups are supposed to be rock-solid dependable; the joke of the 600 is the car is so big so you can bring the full time mechanic along! The more things you think about the funnier it becomes! Mr. Bracq had made comments that he liked the El Camino to the M100 group, and well, you can guess the rest. At least one, maybe two were actually built.
2. Bracq left MB in 1967, I'd like to say that was before the R107/W107 was really conceived? I don't know about MB production cycles, but 5 years seems a bit of a stretch. I don't think he has ever laid claim (or anyone has attributed the design of) to the W107 or any part thereof. If anything the hardtop of such looks Pagoda like with the center being lower; that's a Bela Beranyi design as I understand it.
3. The photo I added of the hard-top version of the 1600ti roadster/coupe was only one of the concepts that were part of that project. I just chose one photo that would work well with the layout and design and just to also illustrate something in case people had not seen it before.
Here's a recent painting of both El Benzo #2 and El Benzo #3 at Bryce Canyon National Park.
By the way, nice job on your PT. I've seen a few pickup conversions done on MB's, but none by high school students! I particularly liked the vintage square format snapshot (Box camera or Instamatic 126 film??) with white borders and the muted colors!
Michael Salemi
1969 280SL
Signal Red 568G w/Black Leather (Restored)
President, International Stars Section
Mercedes-Benz Club of America