Clive Palmer in bid to purchase Hitler’s bulletproof Mercedes, King Edward VIII’s Rolls-Royce

Colourful mining mogul turned political player Clive Palmer’s next project is a museum of iconic vehicles on the Gold Coast.

Billionaire Clive Palmer has purchased Adolf Hitler’s bulletproof Mercedes-Benz and a Rolls-Royce owned by King Edward VIII to feature in a new museum he wants to build on the Gold Coast.

The Sunday Mail understands Palmer had been negotiating to buy Hitler’s Mercedes-Benz 770 Grosser Offener Tourenwagen for two years from an unnamed Russian billionaire.

The so-called Super Mercedes with bulletproof glass and armoured panelling was seized in France by the US military at the end of World War II.

After the war it was purchased by an American tobacco billionaire and has changed hands several times before being acquired by Mr Palmer.

Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy company purchased the 1929 Rolls Royce in London recently.

It was built for the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII who later abdicated.

He drove several luxury cars and owned two Rolls-Royces.

Adolf Hitler in his 1939 Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen

Palmer’s Royal Roller has nickel fittings, a luggage rack, a speaking tube, interior electric lights, polished instrument panel, and privacy glass.

The handsome four-door Roller in green and black is under guard at a secret location in where Mr Palmer is assembling what his staff say will be the greatest collection of vintage cars in the planet, with a total value of $200 million.

It was described by R.M. Sotheby’s classical car division as a 1929 Rolls-Royce 20HP Prince of Wales Cabriolet (convertible) completed by Barker & Co, long-time holder of Royal Warrants for coachwork.

The car, believed to have fetched more than $200,000, was secretly shipped to Queensland last month.

Mr Palmer, a Senate candidate, now has rare cars stored in three locations.

Some are under his mansion at Sovereign Islands on the Gold Coast.

Some are at Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast which is undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation.

Many of the cars in his collection have already been seen by the public at Palmer Motorama which he opened at the Coolum resort in 2013.

Mr Palmer has still more valuable cars in a high-secure factory near the Gold Coast.

King Edward VIII’s Rolls-Royce

In all, Mr Palmer hopes to have 600 cars in ever changing exhibitions on the Gold Coast and is searching for land there.

He recently met Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate who believes a car museum on a scale envisaged by Mr Palmer would become a major tourist attraction.

Hitler’s Mercedes was used to carry Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during a state visit to Berlin in June 1940.

Later, Hitler drove it in a victory parade in Paris after France fell to the German invasion.

The car was shipped to the US in 1946 where it was bought by Tom Austin, a rich tobacco planter from Greeneville, Tennessee.

After falling into disuse, with apparently little understanding of its provenance, the car was eventually recognised and restored by two classic car hunters in 1976 before being sold on to Ralph Engelstad, owner of the Imperial Palace Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.