Solved: Rust never sleeps

[Ehhxekt]

A French speaker might not agree about the "sounds like" bit, but "Le Mans" sounds quite like "Léman", so I'll offer that as the link, with less than total confidence.

Not a native French speaker, I feel confident enough about it to make a suggestion for the next step: 
Hint 9 – Rust 26: Ravel 9/12 HP Berline

9: In the town where this coachbuilder was located you can find the grave of a well-known musician who shares his name with the next car.

Maurice Ravel, the great French composer is buried in the cemetery of Levallois-Perret, a suburb of Paris where Henri Chapron established his coachbuilding company after the Great War.
By the way, the connection doesn't end here. In the last years of his life, Ravel kept an apartment at 16 rue Chevallier (today rue Louis-Rouquier), only a few blocks away from the Chapron workshop.

[4popoid]

Assuming Tom_I and Ehhxekt are correct, I offer the next step.

Hint 24 says: 'This car was built in a town whose twin town was the birthplace of the next car's engineer."  The Ravel was built in Besançon, France.  A twin town of Besançon is Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.  Freiburg im Breisgau is the birthplace of engineer, designer and inventor Engelbert Zaschka.

Rust 13 is the folding three wheeled car invented by Engelbert Zaschka in 1929.

Hence, the next step is: Hint 24 and Rust 13.

[Wendax]

What intrigues me about this puzzle is that there can seem to be more than one plausible link at any stage. I have already gone completely wrong with one, and history may be about to repeat itself. 

That's part of the challenge. 

So from Rust 9, I can see two ways forward, one of which I am more in favour of, but which I can't resolve, and one which I can resolve, but which I am less sure of.

But I'll try Hint 3:

3: The place where this picture was taken sounds like the model name of the next car.

In Rust 9 the Aston Martin DBR 1/300 was crashed at the notorious Maison Blanche kink in the race circuit at Le Mans. Rust 21 is a Citroën DS "Le Léman" Coupé by Chapron.

A French speaker might not agree about the "sounds like" bit, but "Le Mans" sounds quite like "Léman", so I'll offer that as the link, with less than total confidence.

I see that your French is as bad as mine, so you could find the right hint as well as the right car. Well done!

[Wendax]

A French speaker might not agree about the "sounds like" bit, but "Le Mans" sounds quite like "Léman", so I'll offer that as the link, with less than total confidence.

Not a native French speaker, I feel confident enough about it to make a suggestion for the next step: 
Hint 9 – Rust 26: Ravel 9/12 HP Berline

9: In the town where this coachbuilder was located you can find the grave of a well-known musician who shares his name with the next car.

Maurice Ravel, the great French composer is buried in the cemetery of Levallois-Perret, a suburb of Paris where Henri Chapron established his coachbuilding company after the Great War.
By the way, the connection doesn't end here. In the last years of his life, Ravel kept an apartment at 16 rue Chevallier (today rue Louis-Rouquier), only a few blocks away from the Chapron workshop.

Yes!

[targhediferro]

I'm very unlucky with this quiz....I got some hint, but not the car...I had in my pocket the answer Chapron-Ravel, but this morning I discovered that 3 right answers arrived in few minutes. Now I'm again in the darkness. 

[Wendax]

Cheer up, with every solved step this puzzle gets easier.

[targhediferro]

Let's try to make a hole in the water.   Engelbert Zaschka was involved in several airplane projects;  now we have almost a hundred aeronautic museums around the world, but the only hint coming to my mind is number 19.  Is it a right path?

[Ehhxekt]

I think it is... 
Hint 19 - Rust 23: Harmening Clubbus HKB

19: This car's builder also constructed completely different vehicles. A museum especially for those machines can be found in the town where the next vehicle in the chain was built.

A man of inventions, Engelbert Zaschka was also a pioneering figure in helicopter technology; he experimented with 'rotating airplanes' as early as the late twenties. So I suppose the next link in the chain might be the small Saxonian town of Bückeburg, well known for its nice Hubschraubermuseum, and also the city where the coachbuilding firm named Hermann Harmening built a small number of well-shaped luxury coaches in the mid-fifties.

[targhediferro]

I earned half point!

[Wendax]

I think it is... 
Hint 19 - Rust 23: Harmening Clubbus HKB

19: This car's builder also constructed completely different vehicles. A museum especially for those machines can be found in the town where the next vehicle in the chain was built.

A man of inventions, Engelbert Zaschka was also a pioneering figure in helicopter technology; he experimented with 'rotating airplanes' as early as the late twenties. So I suppose the next link in the chain might be the small Saxonian town of Bückeburg, well known for its nice Hubschraubermuseum, and also the city where the coachbuilding firm named Hermann Harmening built a small number of well-shaped luxury coaches in the mid-fifties.

You've got it.

Bad luck, targhediferro.

[targhediferro]

Let me try again....hint 23 and rust 28;  Do Harmening Bus and NWF bus use the same diesel engine?

[Wendax]

As far as I recall they had different engines, Henschel resp. Ford Hercules or Deutz. It is not the right hint anyway. 

[Tom_I]

I think the next one is Hint 30:

30: The production of this vehicle was continued after the initial company was taken over. The new company was taken over later on by another company who shares its name with the next vehicle's builder.

Hermann Harmering was taken over by Fahrzeugfabrik Kannenberg (FAKA) in 1958, and that was in turn taken over by the Kögel Trailer company in 1972.

Rust 3 is a Kögel tractor, but made by a different manufacturer.

[Wendax]

That was a hard one I think. Well done. The tractor is a Kögel K28, just for the record.

[Ehhxekt]

Traktorenwerke Kurt Kögel operated in Munich, so I guess the next car might be Rust 20. Via Hint 15, it seems to fit the bill:

This vehicle (Kögel tractor) was built in the same town (Munich) as the base (BMW) of the next car

– a unique ambulance conversion of the E3 2800 sedan, made by the famous German racing car builder, Willi Martini.

[Wendax]

Very good!

[4popoid]

I'm pretty sure the next Rust is Rust 8, and the connection is Willi Martini, but I'm not sure which Hint is the connecting one.

Rust 8 is the 1952 wreck of Paul Pietsch at Avus in the Veritas Avus streamliner. The Veritas was built by Ernst Loof at Nürburgring, and Willi Martini was employed by Loof at the time.  Later Martini built cars at Nürburgring, and, although I am not sure, I think that he might have been working in the same building where the Veritas had been built.

Hint 21 says: This car was built in the same building as the next one, but by a different company.

So I'll try: Hint 21 - Rust 8.     

[Wendax]

Right again. 

[Ehhxekt]

8: These two cars shared their name and purpose, but were built on different continents.

Among the vehicles still on offer, there is one that shares both the name and purpose with the Avus Meteor, and was built on a different continent. Christened Meteor Lakester, Alfred Churchill's curious, cigar-like hot-rod was created with the same idea in mind as the envelope-bodied Veritas: its constructor wanted to reach high speed on a certain track – in this case a dried salt bed of a lake in South California.
So my candidate for the next link would be Hint 8 - Rust 15: Meteor Lakester, 1939.

[Wendax]

Nice sleuthing! 

[targhediferro]

This Meteor looks to be made with aluminium panels, so I guess that the hint number 31 links it to rust number 1, the prototype of Fuldamobil whose later version were made with aluminium panels too.

[Wendax]

Yes, the Fuldamobil N is the oldest surviving Fuldamobil known and carries chassis number 8.

[4popoid]

Hint 17 says: "Another car of this company was build under license by the next vehicle's maker."

Rust 28 is a NWF bus.  NWF built some Fuldamobil vehicles under license.

So: Hint 17 - Rust 28

[Wendax]

Yes, the NWF bus is probably a NWF BS or BK.

[Ehhxekt]

2: The next car was built in the twin town of the city where this vehicle was built.

Nordwestdeutscher Fahrzeugbau was located in Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxonia. A twin town of the city is Vichy in France, where in 1969 Guy Ligier founded his car manufacturing business. The mid-engined JS1 was their first model; as far as I know, only three were built. Rust 31 is one of them.