Stars and summertime.

The variety on display here extends not only to the range of marques, but also to the range of engines: from a three-cylinder two-stroke unit in an Auto Union 1000 and a frugal van diesel through to the full panoply of passenger car petrol and diesel engines. Making their presence felt particularly, acoustically speaking: the mighty V8 units of the many US classics. Their sonorous rumble rings out again and again over the museum mound.

A passion for performance? Yes indeed, says Maren Hinderer. This young woman, who works in the engineering development department at Mercedes-AMG, has just driven a circuit of the car park in front of the museum in her sumptuous Lincoln Mark IV. She herself brought the 1974-built highway cruiser, which has a displacement of 7.5 litres, over to Germany, but only drives it in fine weather, she says.

Alongside it, gleaming in the sun, is the E 500 limited (W 124) of 1994 belonging to Thomas Hoffmann. Just 500 units of this version were built. Hoffman has been absolutely delighted with his high-performance V8 saloon right from the beginning: “When I bought it, it felt like a new vehicle that was just nicely run-in – although even back then it had already been running for more than ten years”, he says.