Mercedes (Mercedes-Benz)

D, 1901 – 1926: Mercedes

(1) Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, Bad Cannstatt, 1901 – 1903

(2) Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, Stuttgart – Untertürkheim, 1903 – 1926

Emil Jellinek, wealthy admirer of Daimler cars, had persuaded the Daimler company and its chief designer Wilhelm Maybach to build a high performance car. This new car was the 35bhp 5.9-litre model which today is known as the forefather of modern motor cars and which owed nothing in appearance to horse-drawn carriages; features included honeycomb radiators, gate change, mechanically-operated inlet valves, and pressed-steel frame. The Mercedes car design was copied by many manufacturers in Europe and America during the following years. This Daimler car was entered by Jellinek for the Nice Week of 1901 under his pseudonym Mercédes, his daughter’s name. Driven by Wilhelm Werner the Mercedes car gained victory in the Nice Speed Trials and the La Turbie Hill Climb, these being the first successes connected with the name of Mercedes cars. Jellinek was already acting as unofficial agent for Daimler cars and had a seat on the board of directors of the Daimler works since 1900. He sold the cars as Mercedes cars because of legal proceedings by Panhard-Levassor, who owned the Daimler licences for France. Sales and racing successes of cars bearing this Mercedes car name led the Daimler works in 1902 to adopt ‘Mercedes’ as a new brand name for private cars. Commercial vehicles were still marketed as Daimlers. A range of tourers and racing Mercedes cars followed, based on the 35PS Mercedes carmodel. Most prominent of this range were the Mercedes Simplex 18/22, 18/32, 40/45 and 60ps models which had a much lower weight than the 35PS; the ‘Mercedes 60’ had inlet over exhaust and was capable of 70mph for a chassis price of £2.200. The very successful 60 and 90hp racing Mercedes cars were based on the Simplex designs. Among the sporting successes of the Mercedes cars were the Semmering Hill Climb in the years 1901 to 1909, the Gordon Bennett Race in 1903, the Ostend speed Trials in 1904, and also the World Record at Daytona in 1905 was with a Mercedes car. In 1902 Daimler took over the Motorfahrzeug- und Motorenfabrik Berlin AG in Marienfelde, which had been founded by a Daimler director and here Daimler concentrated production of their Daimler Marienfelde commercial vehicles. During a short period in 1906/ 1907 Mercedes Electrique cars were built in Marienfelde under licence from Austro Daimler. One example of this Mercedes car was added to the Kaiser’s stable.   In 1907 Maybach left the Mercedes car company to found a firm of his own, specializing in aero engines. His last designs for Daimler were the 6-cylinder 37/70PS (9.5-litres) and 39/80PS (10.2-litres) Mercedes carmodels, with chain drive and T-head engines, derived from the 120hp racing Mercedes car. Jellinek returned his rights for sole distribution of Mercedes cars in various countries to the Daimler company in 1905 and after selling his shares the man who gave the Mercedes car its name, left the board of directors in 1908.  Paul Daimler followed Maybach as chief engineer and designer of Mercedes cars after spending a few years with Austro-Daimler. After 1908 most Mercedes car models were equipped with shaft instead of chain drive, which was continued for the heavier Mercedes 22/50, 28/60, 23/80 and 37/90PS types. Among numerous racing successes with Mercedes cars, the victory in the 1908 French Grand Prix was a highlight for the Mercedes car company. Lautenschlager drove a 135PS race Mercedes car especially built for this event. In 1909 Daimler acquired a licence for Knight engines and a range of Mercedes car models was produced, including the 4.1-litre Mercedes 16/45 which was made until 1923. In 1909 Mercedes cars applied for registration of the now famous three-pointed star as a trade mark. It was registered and used from 1911 onwards on all Mercedes cars. From the start Mercedes cars were elegantly designed for high performance and favoured by royalty and the big financiers of the Old and the New World. The Kaiser owned several Mercedes cars. Among the most impressive successes with Mercedes cars were the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the 1914 French Grand Prix by Lautenschlager, Wagner and Salzer driving the 4,5-litre, 115bhp shaft-driven racing Mercedes car which was developed for this event. One of these Mercedes cars was brought to the United States and won the 1915 Indianapolis Race driven by Ralph de Palma. This Mercedes car was successful after World War 1, when Count Masetti won the 1921 Italian Grand Prix and the 1922 Targa Florio. A few more first places were gained with Mercedes cars in hill climbs until 1927. The powerful ohc ‘28/95’ 6-cylinder Mercedes car was just going into production when war broke out.   After the war the Mercedes car company also started to experiment with supercharged engines for Mercedes cars, after building blown aero engines during the war. The first production Mercedes cars fitted with a Roots supercharger appeared at the Berlin Motor Show of 1921: the 4-cylinder Mercedes 6/25/40PS, 1,5-litre and the Mercedes 10/40/65PS 2,6-litre models. Paul Daimler retired from the Mercedes car company in 1922 and was succeeded by Ferdinand Porche, who came to Mercedes cars from Austro-Daimler. Two more Mercedes car-models with blown engines were produced, the 6-cylinder Mercedes 15/70/100PS (4-litre)  and the Mercedes 24/100/140PS 6-litre. In 1923 the name of Rudolf Caracciola first appeared in association with Mercedes cars when he won the ADAC-Reichsfahrt; for the next 16 years his name was identified with the Mercedes cars racing successes. In 1924 Mercedes cars began to merge their interests with Benz, and amalgamation followed in 1926. Subsequent Mercedes car models were sold under the name of Mercedes-Benz.  

D, 1926 to date: Mercedes

Daimler Benz AG, Stuttgart-Untertürkheim; Mannheim

After amalgamation of Mercedes cars and Benz cars in 1926 the Benz 16/50PS model and the Mercedes car models with supercharged engines were continued for some time. New 1926 Mercedes car models were the 6-cylinder Mercedes-Benz 8/38PS 2-litre Stuttgart and the Mercedes-Benz 12/55PS 3.1-litre Mannheim, both conventional and heavy sv machines with coil ignition, 3-speed gearboxes and wood wheels. These Mercedes cars were developed into the 2.6-litre Mercedes-Benz Stuttgart 260 and the 3½-litre Mercedes-Benz Mannheim 350. A new Mercedes car model the Mercedes-Benz Nürburg 460 with an 8-cylinder 4.6-litre engine was added in 1928 and this later grew into the Mercedes-Benz Nürburg 500. These were the last Mercedes car models – except the ‘Grosser Mercedes’ – built to the classic Mercedes car chassis design with U-sectioned frame, rigid axles an semi-elliptic springs. The earlier Mercedes car model 24/100/140PS became the sports model Mercedes-Benz K with shortened wheelbase and a supercharged 6,25-litre 24/110/160PS engine. This Mercedes car was the fastest touring car of its time on the world market. From this Mercedes car a range of very successful types was derived: the Mercedes-Benz S (6,8-litre 26/120/180PS), the Mercedes-Benz SS (7,1-litre 27/140/200PS), Mercedes-Benz SSK (7,1-litre 27/170/225PS), and the Mercedes-Benz SSKL (7,1-litre 27/170/300PS). The Mercedes cars gained numerous victories and places in hill-climbs, and sports carraces. Although the Mercedes cars were not racing cars they nevertheless competed successfully in several events, winnings for Mercedes-Benz cars were, for example, the Ulster TT in 1929, the Irish Grand Prix in 1930, the Mille Miglia and Eifel Race in 1931, and the Avus Race in 1931 and 1932. In 1930 came the first 8-cylinder Grosser Mercedes car with a 7,7-litre engine developing 150bhp, or 200bhp with supercharger. The first version of this Mercedes car was built until 1937 and had the old Mercedes car chassis design, but the succeeding model Mercedes-Benz 770 of 1938 had a modern lay-out with oval tubular frame and swing axles. The engine output of the Mercedes car was increased to 155/230bhp. A maximum speed of over 100mph was possible with this Mercedes-Benz car. The ‘economy class’ was entered again with a Mercedes car in 1931 using the 6-cylinder, 1.692cc model Mercedes-Benz 170, the first Mercedes car to use independent wheel suspension. The design which followed in Mercedes cars included the rear-engined models Mercedes-Benz 130H, Mercedes-Benz 150H and Mercedes-Benz 170H, with backbone frames, the Mercedes--Benz 260D, the first diesel-engined private Mercedes car to be series produced, and the supercharged Mercedes-Benz 540K sports tourer.    In 1934 Mercedes-Benz took up racing again. For the 750kg Formula an 8-cylinder 3,36-litre supercharged Mercedes car model was designed, developing 354bhp. During the next three years engine capacities of these race Mercedes cars were raised to 5,66-litres giving an output of 646bhp. For 1938 and 1939 a V12 supercharged Mercedes car-model was built to the new 3-litre Formula specification, developing 476 and 483bhp. A 1½-litre, 254bhp Mercedes-Benz racer had to be designed especially for the 1939 Tripoli Grand Prix and 1st and 2nd places in this race were the result. This was one of the last successes for Mercedes-Benz before the outbreak of World War 2, after a long and distinguished record which had begun in 1934 and only been interrupted by Auto-Union, the two firms sharing nearly all major race successes between them. Several world records were also gained by Mercedes-Benz cars. In 1934 the standing-start mile was covered at 117,2mph at Gyor (Hungary), and the flying mile at 193,8mph on the Avus course. In 1936 a world record for the flying 10 miles was set with a V12 aerodynamic-bodied Mercedes-Benz car on the Frankfurt-Darmstadt autobahn with 207.2mph. The Frankfurt autobahn again saw a Mercedes car record early in 1938 when the flying kilometer was covered at 268.9mph, the highest speed ever achieved on a public highway. Caracciola was the driver who gained these world records with Mercedes cars, and also a numer of class records, for Mercedes cars. An aero-engined Mercedes car was being prepared for an attack on the World Land Speed Record in 1939. The former Benz works at Mannheim were used for the production of private Mercedes-Benz cars until 1939. Since then commercial vehicles have been built in Mannheim and private Mercedes cars in the Stuttgart-Untertürkheim works. At the outbreak of World War 2 the Mercedes car firm were testing a 6-litre V12 intended as a replacement for the Grosser.   World War 2 halted development. The pre-war 1.697cc Mercedes-Benz 170V was taken up again in 1947 and was available as the Mercedes-Benz 170D with a diesel engine. These fours had back-bone-type frames; unitary construction made its appearance in the 1954 ‘Mercedes-Benz 180’ series. The first Mercedes-Benz car with ohc four was the sporting Mercedes-Benz 190SL of 1955. The 6-cylinder models Mercedes-Benz 220 and Mercedes-Benz 300 followed in 1951. The 4-cylinder Mercedes-Benz 170 was progressively increased in size and output from 1.697cc and 38bhp to the 1.988cc and 95bhp of the 200 introduced in 1965. Sports Mercedes car manufacture recommenced in 1952 with the 6-cylinder, 3-litre, 215bhp Mercedes-Benz 300SL with fuel injection, originally a fixed head coupé with gullwing doors, but later sold as a Mercedes-Benz roadster; over 3.250 Mercedes-Benz 300SL cars were made. The Mercedes-Benz 300SL was victorious at Le Mans in 1952. The Mercedes-Benz 300SLR was a sports racing car with an 8-cylinder 3-litre engine of 300bhp and was very successful in competitions. In 1954 Mercedes-Benz cars again took part in formula racing with an 8-cylinder 2.5-litre version. Juan Manuel Fangio was World Champion in 1954 and 1955 on this Mercedes-Benz carmodel. Participation in racing was discontinued after 1955.   The top model of the Mercedes-Benz range of production cars was added in 1964. It was the Mercedes-Benz 600, a luxury car with an 8-cylinder 6.3-litre 250bhp engine, continuing the tradition of the pre-war Grosser Mercedes. This Mercedes-Benz car is available in two wheelbase lengths, 10ft 6in and 12ft 10in. The latter has an overall length of 20ft 6in and is also available with a 6-door body. Early in 1968 the Mercedes-Benz range was revised with a restyled body and new independent rear suspension for the Mercedes-Benz 200, Mercedes-Benz 230 and Mercedes-Benz 250 models. A new 280 engine was introduced, used in the bodies of the former Mercedes-Benz 300 saloons and Mercedes-Benz 250SL sports car. Bridging the gap between the Mercedes-Benz 300 and the Mercedes-Benz 600 was the Mercedes-Benz 300SEL, a Mercedes-Benz 300 saloon using the big 6.3-litre V8 engine. Power-assisted steering, automatic transmission and airconditioning were standard, and this Mercedes-Benz car was capable of 137mph, though attempts to race the Mercedes-Benz car at Spa in 1969 proved abortive. In May 1968 the Mercedes-Benz company delivered its two millionth private Mercedes-Benz car since the end of the war, and in 1969 came a tantalizing prototype sports coupé, the Mercedes-Benz C-111 with rear-mounted fuel-injection 3-rotor Wankel engine developing 280bhp, a 5-speed ZF transaxle, limited-slip differential, and all-disc brakes. Weight of this Mercedes-Benz car was under 2.640lb. By 1970 the Mercedes-Benz car had been redesigned to take a 4-rotor unit with an equivalent capacity of 4.8-litres and an output of 350bhp; top speed was around 190mph. New production models were the Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 3.5 saloon and Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 coupé, powered by 230bhp 3½-litre dohc V8 units with fuel injection; by 1971 this engine had also been applied to the Mercedes-Benz 350SL sports coupé, features of which were trailing-arm rear suspension and a foot-operated parking brake. Smallest of the 1972 – 1973 Mercedes-Benz carrange was the 2-litre Mercedes-Benz 200, available with 4-cylinder petrol or diesel engine, and during 1972 the medium-sized Mercedes-Benz 280SE gave way to a new 2.8-litre dohc model. Output of this Mercedes-Benz car was 160bhp with carburetors or 185bhp with fuel injection.    

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; HON

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