MERCEDES (Germany) 190l-1926
MERCEDES-BENZ 1926 to date
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, Mercédès.
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
Nürbürg (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.
1952 Mercedes-Benz 300D Adenauer
1960 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL
1960 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL
1962 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL
1963 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL
1964 Mercedes-Benz 220 SEB coupe
1965 Mercedes-Benz 220 SEB coupe
1966 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL
1967 Mercedes-Benz 250 S
1967 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL
1967 Mercedes -Benz 600
1972 Mercedes-Benz 250
1972 Mercedes-Benz 350 SL
1973 Mercedes-Benz 230
1976 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE
1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL
1979 Mercedes-Benz 450 SL
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