A closer look at the Red Skull’s 1942 V16 Coupe from Captain America

The V16 Hydra Schmidt Roadster is the kind of bolide that makes kids rather be villains than do-gooders. It was the personal carriage of Johann Schmidt who, as alias Red Skull, was Adolf Hitler’s head of weaponry, Captain America’s nemesis and one of “the greatest threats to humanity.” In his spare time as a member of the Hydra terrorist group, Red Skull had access to alien technology that went into lots of motorized Hydra goodies, but his roadster earned its title of fastest fictitious road car in the world from nothing more exotic than a ginormous airplane engine.

In the “real” world of movies, Red Skull’s movie car for Captain America was one of the concepts created by Daniel Simon, a former Volkswagen Group concept car designer who left the nest to make fantastical things. Underneath bodywork cued off of the Mercedes-Benz 540K, Mercedes G4 four-wheel drive and vintage Duesenberg and Bentley design language is a V8 dragster engine from Ford, all settled on a truck chassis and truck wheels.

Our suggestion for a Time Waster of the Day is to check out the rest of Simon’s site, where he scoops on more of his work like the light cycles from Tron Legacy, the Lotus LMP2 livery and the Bugatti Veyron Hermès. His tagline is “Style For All Galaxies.” Right on. Check out the Schmidt Hydra in the video below.