| IT ALL BEGAN OVER FIVE GENERATIONS AGO when two German engineers, Karl Benz and Gotlieb Daimler, started at about the same time two separate companies which built automobiles that actually worked. When Mrs. Benz drove one to shop in another town, that spelled reliability. Ing Benz gets credit for the first production model in 1896 with the Benz Velo. Bear in mind that this is not quite like Jack Kelly developing the U2 at the Skunkworks, or Jack Northrop developing the Flying Wing in
Hawthorne. Unlike these modern American giants of invention, the two Germans were jacks-of-all-trades, personally conceiving and designing each part of a new system and often making them with their own hands. Then, perhaps no less difficult, they had to go out and sell their not-yet-fashionable creations to the rich. And the rich and famous, who were still racing their horses, now started racing their horseless carriages. It soon became fashionable for the wealthy to show their magnificent automobiles on summer Sunday afternoon gentlemen's contests attended by gorgeously coifed and gowned ladies. Thus was born the Concours d' Elegance. Karl Benz' racing success was assured and soon evolved into commercial success when an Austrian diplomat/entrepreneur contracted to buy 50 new cars, provided he had North American sales exclusivity and provided the cars would henceforth bear the Austrian's Jewish daughter's name, Mercedes. Historians lined up to rejoice at what they imagined was Hitler's reaction when he found out who his parade car was named after. Multimillionaire Henry Clay Frick imported one to his Pittsburgh mansion and, because of the scarcity of skilled domestic drivers, also imported a French chauffeur. World War I brought contracts to build military vehicles to most engineering/automobile firms, including both Mr. Benz' and Mr. Daimler's. It also brought to the battlefield a young American ambulance driver, Bud Cohn. Fifty years later in Los Angeles, Bud Cohn was nicknamed "Mr. Mercedes" and founded Le Circle Concours d'Elegance, whose grand car shows took place on the lawn of the then-premier Ambassador Hotel. As peace broke out in Europe and America, so did the increased popularity of motorcar racing and the most prestigious continental winners were often open behemoths called Mercedes-Benz SSK (Sport Special Short). |
ABOUT THE SAME TIME, in England, Mr. Daimler's nephew started the Daimler Motorcar Company that still provides the Royal Family their motor carriages. It is not recorded that Mr. Daimler and Mr. Benz ever met, but their companies merged and the 1930s saw the Benz red changed to the Daimler blue in the company's radiator medallions. The American influence manifested itself when the Roots brothers of Indiana developed a supercharger which found its way into the most powerful Mercedes, and the "K" in the cars nomenclature now stood for Kompressor. Not every Mercedes (the Germans called them Benzes) became memorable. While working for Mercedes, Dr. Ing. F. Porsche designed model 140H which had a 1.4 liter rear-mounted engine and looked just like the later Volkswagen beetle. It was totally underwhelming and quickly forgotten. The bread and butter for Daimler-Benz during the Depression were four- or sometimes six-cylinder passenger and commercial models. The classic models, way beyond the then-general public's buying capacity, were built in relatively small numbers and are today highly prized show cars. For example, when Bud Cohn died of a heart attack during the 1978 London-to-Brighton run, driving his Benz Velo (the same puny one-cylinder 1896 veteran that he and Bill Post had driven earlier on the Santa Monica-to-Ambassador Hotel run along Wilshire Boulevard), his entire collection was auctioned by Christie's at the L.A. Convention Center. His SSK was appraised at $100,000-$125,000, and the queen of the collection, his 1936 500K Special Roadster, one of only five known in existence, at $125,000 - $150,000. To the surprise of the American car-collecting world, the watershed prices paid for the cars were $320,000 and respectively $400,000, plus 10% commissions. The Velo also went for a pretty price, which was good news for another California collector, Fred Lustig, who had his own 1896 model sitting in the living room. The apprentices at D-B Museum in Stuttgart made half-a-dozen replicas of the 1896 Velo which the Museum sends on public relations tours. |
| Today, that 500K Special Roadster, which for several years was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the highest priced car to be sold at public auction, might bring in a private sale as much as $4 - $5 million. One of the several exquisitely rebodied replicas available today might bring $1,000,000, a price that's nearly what it costs to build. One remembers Count Marcus Clary who, in a speech on behalf of the MBNA at a breakfast of Fashion Island exhibitors said: "I love coming to Southern California and seeing the Mercedes that DaimlerBenz never built." IN 1944, then-Private Bob Fels, while advancing in Northern Italy against the Germans, was surprised when an artillery round landed near a haystack and revealed a roadworthy Mercedes-Benz open-staff car. He and his fellow GIs were soon having fun driving the booty about, when a colonel arrived and, invoking RHIP (rank has its privileges), suggested that the danger of U.S. fighter planes strafing them required him to appropriate the vehicle. Later, American occupation forces sent large numbers of German cars back to the States. By the end of World War II, the Eighth Air Force under General Jimmy Doolittle had left very little standing of Stuttgart's industrial district of Unterturkheim, home to Daimler-Benz headquarters plant. In 1945, a Phoenix was to rise from these ruins. The U.S. military government sent over a couple of field-grade officers and a scrounge-savvy sergeant to Daimler-Benz with orders to help the factory find enough materials to get started again. By 1946, production came to 214 dinky new 170V four-cylinder flat-head passenger cars, albeit the real emphasis was on commercial vehicles, to help Germany rebuild. In 1947 production rose to more than 1,000,still basically prewar designs. In 1948, more than 4,000 cars rolled out. The engineering department was looking at what could be done with the three liter block design that had proven itself during the war in so many military trucks. Logic suggests that this is the genesis of the powerplant for the three liter series of race cars called Silver Arrows, which were to make Mercedes-Benz famous again on European and Mexican race courses. In 1949, almost 17,000 cars were produced, of which 1,000 were Diesel-powered, still on the same old frame and running gear, and 5,000 were 170S (special) with the bigger and better new body style. The 170S run included 39 convertibles, a few of which were 170S Cabriolets A, the first postwar luxury model, which debuted in May at the important Hannover Trade Fair. As an interesting footnote, the 170 Diesel motor lasted many more years powering the refrigeration in semi-trailers on American highways. In 1950 34,000 passenger cars were produced. In 1951 the first modern Mercedes-Benz six-cylinder motor for high production was squeezed into a slightly modified 170S. The formerly freestanding headlamps were enclosed into the fenders and the floor shift became a column shift. The new model was the 220. |
This 220 six-cylinder motor became extremely successful. Designated the M1801-180.920, it was listed as 2,195 cc for tax purposes and 2.2 liters for sales purposes. It had a SOHC on an iron head, 6.5 compression and developed about 85 S.A.E. horsepower capable of speeding the Cabriolet to 93 mph. Later a light alloy head and greater compression increased its performance. In 1952, the 300S Cabriolet A became the highest priced model, costing about twice its smaller brother's, the 220 Cabriolet A's price tag of $6,500. Both were produced by the special facility of Sindelfingen. The three-liter version was to acquire fuel injection and become today's most sought postwar classic M-B, valued at over $300,000. In 1953, independent salesman extraordinaire Max Hoffman was distributing Mercedes in the United States. In Hollywood, actress Lauren Bacall and Oscar-winning cinephotographer James Wong Howe were each driving a 220 Cabriolet A. Bing Crosby was to have a severe accident with his 300S Cabriolet A at Wilshire and Sepulveda in West Los Angeles. 1954 BROUGHT THE FIRST really postwar body design: the 220a, which had a unibody, meaning the folded steel paneling in the body's floor replaced the need for the previous heavy frame. The motor was mounted on the front wheel assembly and then attached to the chassis. In 1955 Max Hoffman brought to the USA the sensational 300SL "Gullwing" Coupe with the three-liter motor canted and fuel injected, costing about $5,500. For those thus inspired, there came the affordable, if somewhat sluggish four cylinder 190SL. 1956 brought the 220S and the luxurious cabriolet and coupe, the latter two having the most handsome, decorative wood interiors. Studebaker-Packard took over marketing Mercedes-Benz in the U.S. In 1958, the 220SE with the same 2.2-liter motor featured fuel injection, 8.7 compression creating 135 h.p. The 300Sc, considered by many as perhaps the last of the great postwar Mercedes classics, is phased out. Of course, owners of 280SE 3.5 Cabriolet, which ushered in the V8 motor, the 600 limousine and the ultra fast 6.3 sedan, will argue this point. The fact remains that throughout its long history, Mercedes-Benz models, whether classic or plebeian, have excelled in engineering, performance, and reliability. Janis Joplin had a lot of company when she asked God to "please buy me a Mercedes Benz." Copyright 2000 Robert H.I. Silver |
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The author's 1952 Mercedes-Benz 220 Cabriolet A. |