Coupe at Technical Museum, Speyer, Germany

Sweet 356........looks like some kinda cool rare VW based car in the background.

What is that white car?  Anyone know

Cool! Thanks for sharing that link.

Pretty sure that white car in the background is a Borgward.

Mitch, you are correct...the white car is a Borgward

Here's a pic I took of the Borgward

Pics I took of the 356:

Looks like an Me109 Messerschmidt right behind the 356 in the last picture.  Hell of a plane---just not on a  par with our P51 Mustangs.

That coupe is sick... would love to get a coupe replica to park next to my tub

Interesting thing about the ME 109: the engines were upside-down--crank on top, pistons underneath. Fuel injection and dry sump can do that; the guys in carbuerated Hurricanes during the battle of Britain were at a huge disadvantage.

The ME 109 was ahead of everything the allies had until the second or third iterations of the Spitfire and the Mustangs came in large numbers.

Even still, it was highly competitive, as anyone who knows the individual pilot scores from that war would have to concede.

The top German Ace scored 352 kills.

The top 114 WWII fighter aces: all German. Number 114 of the German Luftwaffe claimed 97 victories.

The top American ace in that war, Richard Bong, had 40 kills.

He flew p-38s in the Pacific theater.

Let's not forget that the German pilots had lots of practice before the 'real war' began.  How many small and ill defended countries did they overrun, shooting down planes and pilots that were not as well trained as they were?  It's easy to build up your kill score when you are shooting down out of date planes.

Once the RAF (with a lot of Commonwealth pilots) got up to speed, and once the USAF joined in, the German pilots did not do all that well.  The Battle of Britain proved that an opposing air force could do just as well as the German luftwaffe was doing. 

The RAF was equal to them in that battle, and the Hurricanes had approximately 80% of the RAF kills in that battle.  The Hurricane was a solid plane, which could withstand severe damage and keep going.  The Spitfire was a lithe fighter, and even the Germans admired and wished they had them.

The BF109 was deff the workhorse for Germany, my personal fav was the FW190 and the latter D-G's. I think the big issue towards the end of the war when these great planes came out was lack of experienced pilots to fly them. My WWII fav has to be the typhoon though....

Bob, comparing 'Battle of Britain' aircraft the only advantage the Hurricane had was radar!! i.e. massing forces for interception.  The Me109E had cannon as opposed to rifle caliber machine guns and far better offensive tactics. It's only weakness was it's limiting 30minute combat time across the Channel. Massed Hurricane 'bounces scored well againt lumbering German bombers...poorly against the 109E.

BTW, it was a later model, the 109G, that scattered protective  P-51 cover and sent my dad to Stalag Luft-3 for the duration!! 

Well, my point was that the Germans had so many kills mainly because of their early battles against much weaker countries.  Their pilots had lots of 'practice' against a number of poorly equipped air forces.

I was not saying that the Hurricane was a better plane.  As stated, the Messer's weakness was its limited range.

Most countries were not prepared for air battle the way the Germans were.  They were building war planes a number of years before the war officially broke out, and had lots of time to train pilots. 

My favourite WWII plane was the Mosquito.  It filled a number of roles, and could outrun most fighter planes.

Boy, I wouldn't want to restore a Borgward without already having all the trim parts on the car, I bet those would be hard to find.

...Just take them off a late 60's Buick.

   Nobody would ever know the difference!