It's out there somewhere

Long lost cars make for intriguing stories, from priceless Bugattis that vanished in the wake of WWII to Jim Morrison’s missing GT500. In most cases, the cars which capture the imagination of barn-find hunters everywhere are long gone. However there is one amazing lost vehicle that we’re pretty sure is still in hiding to this day, although we’ve no idea where it might be.

The car in question disappeared without the faintest trace in the late ‘70s, an incredibly valuable 1938 Horch 853A Special Roadster by Erdmann & Rossi, one of just five ever made and the personal car of President Tito of Yugoslavia.

Some cars need to be re-discovered. It’s easy to imagine how something like an E-type could be found entombed in a garage, a special car laid-up and forgotten for decades. It’s harder to imagine how something so much more rarefied and with such huge provenance could be simply forgotten about. We don’t think it has. This is the story of Tito’s missing Horch and why we suspect it’s secretly stashed away somewhere.

If you haven’t heard of Horch, it was one of Germany’s top automotive marques in the late ‘30s building cars to rival Mercedes Benz. Today they’re at home on the lawn at Pebble Beach competing against Duesenbergs and the like.The company’s founder August Horch went on to found Audi, which is the Latin translation of his surname (used to avoid conflict with his former company).

In 1938, Horch introduced the 853 A. With a refined 5.0 litre, 120hp straight-eight, it was one of the fastest luxury cars of the time. If this wasn’t exclusive enough, there was the spectacular 853 A Special Roadster with an elegant body by Erdmann & Rossi, Berlin’s finest coach-builders. Exorbitantly priced, only five of these were ever completed. Sadly the first example is thought to have been bought by a man named Hermann Goering. Another of the five cars was acquired by a Croatian businessman and delivered to Zagreb in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, just before the Second World War unfolded. This beautiful silver Horch 853 A Sport Roadster survived the war intact and found its way into Marshal Tito’s personal fleet. A man both revered and feared, who certainly liked life’s luxuries.

Tito was certainly fond of the Horch, reportedly driving it himself during the late 40s and early 50s. However a vintage roadster didn’t offer a great deal of protection, and it was deemed unsuitable for official use and stored at the military compound in Belgrade under the command of the Special Auto Unit. As the President made use of Cadillacs, Packards, Mercedes, and a few Rolls Royces, the Horch remained tucked away but carefully maintained for decades. Although not used by Tito over this time, the car is documented to have remained completely original, and in perfect working order. Prior to its vanishing act the military maintenance records state that it had registered some 7,390 kilometres on the odometer.

The circumstances of the disappearance certainly suggest an inside job of some kind. In May of 1978, the silver roadster, a favourite car of the President went missing without trace from a heavily guarded military base in the capital of the then heavily militarised Yugoslavia. There are no records of the car leaving the Special Auto Unit and no witnesses to the event. To this day, there isn’t a single mention of chassis #854248 anywhere in the world.

The first of the five cars, owned by Goering, a very poor custodian, appears to have been destroyed. The remaining three cars are fully accounted for. One of this trio (resplendent above) sold for over $5m at Monterey in 2012. However, Tito’s Special Roadster remains a mystery. Whoever has it now is surely well aware of its history and value. We wouldn’t be surprised if this amazing piece of history makes an unlikely reappearance at some point this century!