Ultimate driving pleasure: Gerhard Pahlkötter on-tour in an L 5000

Classic vehicle

Third life.

First an army truck, then a donor for spare parts – and now once more an adornment for every classic vehicle event: the Bünemann family's L 5000.

A trip out in the L 5000: behind the black steering wheel of the Mercedes-Benz, driver Gerhard Pahlkötter likes to make short journeys in and around the Versmold area.


Bright red paint, black wings, the long bonnet with its vertical radiator grille – there is no doubt about it: this L 5000 is a splendid specimen. And yet its fate had almost been sealed. A supply battalion of the French army near Konz had used the truck, built in 1949, as a crew vehicle for about 25 years. The French army disposed of it in the 1980s – with "only" 80,000 kilometres on the clock. The twin-tyre platform truck went to a collector in the Münsterland region of Germany. It was decommissioned and was to be used as a source of spare parts.

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