Böpple driver, Torsten Reinholz, tests the new Actros

Every day car transporters pull up at the Mercedes-Benz dealership Autohaus Lorinser in Waiblingen near Stuttgart to deliver or pick up new and used vehicles. The fact that most of them are Actros trucks goes without saying. Like today: part of the Lorinser Classic collection of precious classic cars is to be transported to a buyer on the Côte d’Azur.

And, as is always the case with genuine classic vehicles, the valuable freight is carried inside closed and specially secured trailers. But Thomas Hähnel, the manager of Lorinser Classic who commissioned Böpple Automotive GmbH, a specialist for closed car transport runs, notices that there is something different about the prime mover: “Hey! The outside rear-view mirrors are missing!”

He is only half right, though: the Actros 1846 does have rear-view mirrors, only they are of the new digital variety. The truck is a pre-series vehicle of the latest generation and comes equipped with the MirrorCam system instead of conventional rear-view and wide-angle mirrors. Compact, aerodynamically shaped cameras monitor the traffic to the rear and feed the images they capture to two large displays that are mounted on the A-pillars inside the driver’s cab. Hähnel is perplexed: “It does look great, and it should make quite a difference to the truck’s aerodynamics.”

His transport services provider Böpple is one of the few companies selected by Mercedes-Benz Trucks to trial the new Actros using its own drivers before it goes into assembly-line production. This advance has resulted in many additional functionalities, such as those used by the MirrorCam that right now is helping Böpple driver Torsten Reinholz manoeuvre his truck in Lorinser’s yard. Not to mention the more than 60 other innovations that are now on board the new flagship from Mercedes-Benz Trucks.

But before the journey can begin, the specialists from Lorinser Classic first have to carefully load the classic cars that have been sold onto the Kässbohrer custom trailer. The elegant whitewall tyres of a 1966 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE/C are the first to make it up the inclined aluminium ramp of the trailer, which cost over 200000 euros, accompanied by the sumptuously burbling sound of the 8-cylinder engine. Other collectors’ items follow, and all are competently positioned and secured by Böpple driver Torsten Reinholz. The two-level trailer can accommodate up to six vehicles.

Customers ordering a closed car transporter from Böpple usually want to ship particularly rare or very valuable vehicles. In addition to classic cars, these can also be exhibition vehicles destined for trade fairs, prototypes for vehicle testing, racing cars for various motor sports series, or luxury cars for especially discerning customers.

 “For safety reasons and to avoid transport damage as much as possible, such vehicles should not be carried in conventional car transporters,” advises Dominik Böpple. Instead they travel, well secured and sealed off behind panels and doors, inside the silver heavy-duty trucks from Böpple.

In addition to dealerships like Lorinser, one of Böpple’s most important customers is Daimler AG itself. The two companies cooperate closely, for example in the transportation of test vehicles and delivery of super sports cars. “We call at a wide variety of destinations throughout Europe on behalf of Daimler,” says Dominik Böpple. “One week we may be delivering Mercedes-AMG GTs from the Sindelfingen plant to a dealer in Norway. The following week we take test vehicles from Mercedes-Benz Cars to altitude trials in the south of Spain.”

It was precisely the great variety of routes travelled by Böpple trucks that had drawn the attention of the customer driver trialling team at Mercedes-Benz Trucks. “The many different types of routes make it ideal for us to conduct real-world testing of the innovations in the new Actros once more before the truck goes into serial production,” says Michael Hintze, the Mercedes-Benz man in charge of on-road trials at Böpple.

“The importance of safety simply cannot be overstated. It is what we owe the general public, as well as our customers, of course; they are the ones who entrust us with their valuable cars,” he adds. This is another reason why the company will order new Actros trucks to join its fleet in the coming years with the new, further improved Active Brake Assist 5 emergency brake assistant.

The new Actros

Photos: Matthias Aletsee
Video: Martin Schneider-Lau