Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz's three-pointed star represents its domination of the land, the sea, and the air. It was first seen on a Daimler in 1909, and was combined with the Benz laurel wreath in 1926 to signify the union of the two firms. The current, plain ring enclosing a star was first seen in 1937.

(text taken from CAR magazine, July 1999. Written by Martin Buckley.)

Emile Jellinek, Austro-Hungarian Consul at Nice and agent for Daimler cars, which he sold to his wealthy acquaintances, persuaded Wilhelm Maybach to design him lower, lighter and more powerful cars which Jellinek named after his elder daughter, Mercedes.

The first Mercedes, the 35 hp, had a 5913cc four-cylinder engine and combined the most modern design features-pressed steel chassis, honeycomb radiator and gate gear-change-in a whole which finally broke with horse-carriage traditions and set the pattern for quality car design in Europe and America.

The name Mercedes, chosen to improve the marque's sales prospects in France, was soon adopted by Daimler for their private cars. Developments of the 35 hp followed, under the name Mercedes Simplex; most famous were the 18/22 hp, the 6780cc 40/45 hp and the mighty 9240cc 60 hp, with overhead inlet valves and 80 mph performance; one of these won the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup Race in Ireland when the official team of 90 hp cars had been destroyed in a fire which gutted the Cannstatt factory.

Maybach left Mercedes in 1907, his last designs for the company being sixes of 9480cc and 10,178cc; he was succeeded by Paul Daimler. The marque dominated the international racing scene before World War One; touring models of the period included a wide variety of cars from 1570cc to a 9575cc four, as well as Knight-engined models, the 4055cc Mercedes surviving until 1923.

Apart from this, the post-war range included the 7250cc ohc six, which Paul Daimler used for his supercharging experiments in 1921-22, and two small ohc fours of 1568cc and 2600cc. Ferdinand Porsche became chief designer in 1923, and shortly before the 1926 amalgamation between Mercedes and Benz, he introduced a blown ohc six-cylinder of 6240cc, known as the 24/100/140, from its rated/unblown/blown power outputs.

Porsche also created the Type K, developing 110 bhp unblown,160 bhp blown.

Mercedes-Benz.(Germany) 1926 to date.

The newly amalgamated Mercedes-Benz group could draw on a wealth of technical experience, with Ferdinand Porsche heading a team which included Fritz Nibel and Nallinger (and later Rudolf Uhlenhaut and Max Sailer). First fruit of the merger was a 1988cc six-cylinder, followed by a 2968cc six, known as the Stuttgart and Mannheim respectively. World famous, though built in limited numbers, were Porsche's supercharged ohc six-cylinder sports cars, the 6250cc K, the 6789cc S and the 7020 SS, SSK and SSKL.

Famous Mercedes of the 1930s were the 3444cc Mannheim six, the 4592cc Nurburg (enlarged to 4918cc in 1932), the 2560cc Stuttgart and the ostentatious straight-eight Grosser Mercedes, with a supercharged 7655cc ohv engine, built in its initial form from 1930 to 1937, and, with a more modern chassis and swing axles, from 1938.

An economy class Mercedes, the popular Type 170, with a 1692cc six-cylinder engine and independent front suspension, appeared in 1931, fo1lowed in 1933 by the 1962cc Type 200: but the rear-engined Heckmotor 130H (a 1308cc four) of 1934-35 enjoyed no lasting success.

Sporting Mercedes of the 1930s came with supercharged engines of 3796cc, 5018cc and 5401cc-all straight-eights. The last pre-war 540K developed 115 bhp unsupercharged, 180 bhp with the blower engaged. Backed by the German state propaganda machine, Mercedes racing cars (and Auto Union) won most of the major races of the 1934-39 era.

Rebuilding after the war took some time, and the first post-war model, the 1697cc 170V sv four-cylinder, did not appear until 1947. Continuing a line begun before the war, Mercedes brought out a diesel-engined version of this car, the 170D. A breakaway from pre-war design came with the unitary-construction 180 series of 1954, but the classic Mercedes of that decade were without doubt the ohc six-cylinder 300S and 300 SL sports models of 2996cc of 1952 onwards, most famous in its original gull-wing coupe form.

A sports-racing straight-eight derivative, the 300SLR, won many competition victories. The luxury Type 600, with an ohc V-8 of 6330cc, appeared in 1964. Since 1971 the six- and eight-cylinder S-class cars with fuel-injection have been flagships of the Mercedes fleet, though the diesel-engined models also sell well. A milestone was passed at the beginning of 1979, when the cheapest Mercedes model passed the DM 20,000 price tag.

(Vintage European Automobiles)