Crompton’s Column
Bruce Crompton discusses one of his favourite vehicles
This month I’m pulling the curtain back on a favourite of mine: the Sd.Kfz. 7, a real heavy-hitter used by the Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS back in the day.
Sd.Kfz stands for Sonderkraftfahrzeug, which translates to ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’. But that's not its full name – for the real aficionados out there, the designation is the Mittlerer Zugkraftwagen 8t, Sd.Kfz 7, which breaks down to ‘Medium Towing Motor Vehicle 8t’.
This piece of work came about from a good mate of mine, Robert Graebe, who owns one of the finest private collections anywhere. Like me, Robert has been diving deep into World War Two vehicle restoration for ages, snagging original German wartime relics along the way. Currently, he's got his hands full with two gems: an 18-tonne Famo and a sweet Sd. Kfz. 7 (8-tonne cargo), undergoing a full makeover courtesy of Eugen Krings from the Krings Collection in Germany.
Robert’s a stickler for detail, all about doing things right the first time with no shortcuts. So when he asked us to tackle the build for his 8-tonne Cargo body, we were all in. We've got a solid track record with these builds, having knocked out fo…
