In 1939, Mercedes built the T 80 with 3,500 horsepower and six wheels for a planned 600 km/h record attempt. 87 years later, the car remains preserved in Stuttgart, its true top speed still unknown because it never raced

In 1939, Mercedes-Benz was building a machine that barely looked like a car. The T 80 stretched more than eight meters long, carried six wheels and was powered by a huge 44.5-liter V12 derived from an aircraft engine. Its mission was simple but extraordinary: go faster than any car had gone before.

The target eventually reached 650 km/h, or about 404 mph . That would have put the Mercedes T 80 deep into record-breaking territory. But there is an important catch. The car never got the chance to prove what it could do. Just as the project was approaching its planned high-speed run, World War II changed everything.