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Mercedes

As the world's oldest car maker, Mercedes-Benz has plenty of heritage. Daimler-Benz Classic is there to make sure it stays that way.

A nyone who thinks the Germans take everything too seriously never partied with Mercedes-Benz. The keepers of the three pointed star shrew quite a bash this past April at the Classic Center in Fellbach. Though the fois gras, delicately smoked salmon, and strawberries dipped in rich, dark chocolate were certainly appreciated, the guest roster is what really made the shindig swing. Where else, after all, can a guy like me share some laughs - and hand-dipped ice cream cones - with Hans Herrmann, Stirling Moss, and John Surtees?

The event, thinly veiled as a reception for the following day's Brooks auction, was really part of the ongoing celebration of Mercedes-Benz's unique heritage that began more than 50 years ago with the creation of the Daimler-Benz Museum in 1936. Today, that celebration is in high gear and manifests itself in a wide variety of venues in addition to the still extant museum.

But why all the hoopla? The primary purpose is to encourage the purchase of the company's present day products by creating a warm and fuzzy association with yesterday's products. But beyond the official, stated purpose there is obviously another force which drives the folks at Mercedes to devote so much of their energy to nurturing the firm's heritage: Quite simply, they are having a great time doing it. And that is not surprising in the least given the unmitigated feeling of devotion the automaker has always inspired in those who come in contact with it.

That unparalleled loyalty is the glue that binds the circle of accomplishment emanating from Stuttgart. The Mercedes heritage is the sum total of all the brilliant people who created it, and at the same time all the brilliance was attracted to and engendered by the proud heritage. There has always been a consistent vein of selflessness permeating the cast of characters who made the clock tick, all the more remarkable given the larger-than-life egos that so often accompany larger-than-life personalities. This notion which is perhaps the greatest testament to the lure of the radiance surrounding the company's heritage, is best illustrated by the words of those who played such a strong role in creating it.

Said Rudolf Caracciola, in discussing the legendary SSK,"The technician who designed this car remained anonymous. Whatever was created was a product of the firm and everybody had a part in it, so that it would have been unfair to stress the contribution of one particular individual. It was a trend of austere self-abnegation and modesty that ran through the entire enterprise."

The incomparable Fangio fought oppressive heat and utter exhaustion as he drove for Mercedes at the Buenos Aires Autodromo in January 1955, but regardless of the difficulty in continuing he could not give up. "It would have been much easier to stop," he later said, "but Mercedes-Benz had just set up a factory in Argentina and I felt how important it was to win, that it was my responsibility."

Journalist Denis Jenkinson, recounting the preparations undertaken for his drive with Stirling Moss in the 1955 Mille Miglia, wrote, "We were putting all our efforts into this race, knowing they were negligible in comparison with those of the factory."

John Fitch, who made unauthorized repairs to his 300SL, was disqualified after crossing the finish line of the 1952 Carrera Pan Americana in fourth place overall, behind Kling's winning Mercedes, Lang's second place Mercedes and Chinetti's third place Ferrari. Of this experience Fitch had this to say: "It was a bitter blow but I felt I had done my best with what I had been given to work with, that this bleak news could not wholly dim my pride or my sense of sharing in the Mercedes victory." Think about that for a moment. Fitch had endured five utterly miserable days fighting the elements, the road, inadequate tires, an ill-handling car, and of course his competitors, only to have his heroic effort discarded and still, he took pride in the Mercedes victory!

And most recently, at the aforementioned pre-auction festivity in Fellbach, I remarked to Stirling Moss that it was exciting to see him there. With great sincerity, he responded, "This is Mercedes-Benz. I wouldn't miss it for anything."

First On Four Wheels

This mystical force that seems to bind people to Mercedes for life is inextricably intertwined with the company's unique history, which of course dates all the way back to the very birth of the automobile.

Toward the end of the 19th century self-propelled vehicles were obviously nothing new, their initial conception dating back at least half a millennium. But nobody had as of yet brought all of the ingredients together to create what we conceive of as a true automobile. This is where Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz enter the equation.

Utilizing the four stroke principle discovered by Beau de Rochas and subsequently patented by Nikolaus Otto, Daimler patented the world's first lightweight, high-speed engine on December 16, 1883. Three years later he constructed his first vehicle.

Karl Benz, working quite independently from Daimler (ironically, the two men lived only 60 miles apart in the Neckar Valley, yet they never met) proceeded on a parallel course of development and assembled his first tricycle in 1885. Shortly thereafter, on January 29, 1886 to be precise, Benz was awarded Patent DRP 37435 for a vehicle considered the first true horseless carriage.

The ground-breaking work of Daimler and Benz, utilizing the inventiveness of those who preceded them, ushered in the modern age of the automobile. These two pioneers persisted where others did not - in the manufacture and continued development of their inventions - and brought to fruition the motor vehicle as a complete and ultimately practical unit. For this Karl Benz is called the Father of the Motor Car and Daimler-Benz is acknowledged as the oldest automobile manufacturer in the world.

Being the first and oldest car maker in the world is of tremendous import, but is only one chapter in the long, complex story that forms the Daimler-Benz heritage. The continuing quest for improvement and ultimately, perfection, which both Mr. Daimler and Mr. Benz adhered to, has always been the hallmark of the company which links their names.

Among the earliest manifestations of the quest for perfection is the first machine to wear the Mercedes appellation, a Daimler creation Brunno Sacco calls "the first modern car of the emerging century, a delicate masterpiece of engineering aesthetics." In a demonstration of its superiority, the Mercedes left the field in its wake when it initially raced in Nice in 1901. And under the careful guidance of Willhelm Maybach, the Mercedes line evolved in the subsequent years at a pace that overshadowed all of its contemporaries.

Technical innovation and competition success continued to characterize the output of both Daimler and Benz in the period preceding World War I. The now legendary Mercedes-Simplex, Benz-Parsifal, and Blitzen Benz, among many others, are testament to the capabilities of the two company's respective engineering departments.

The Star Goes Racing

In the years following the conclusion of hostilities, the companies rebuilt their production facilities and in 1926 Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and Benz & Cie united to form Daimler-Benz AG. The product of the merger immediately established itself as the foremost producer of the finest engineered, most powerful, and most exquisitely beautiful road going and racing cars in all the world. Included among these were the S (Sport), SS (Super Sport), SSK (Super Sport Kurz), and SSKL (Super Sport Kurz Leicht). These were followed by the equally legendary 500 K and 540 K series.

Besides providing enthusiasts with the absolute finest thoroughbred road vehicles, the sports series formed the basis of highly successful racing cars. In 1927, Caracciola piloted an S to victory in the initial race on the winding Nurburgring circuit. Four years later, with Wilhelm Sebastian as his co-driver, Caracciola became the first foreigner to achieve overall victory in Italy's Mille Miglia race with an SSK.

The racing successes of the Daimler-Benz road cars, impressive though they are, are overshadowed by the company's all out competition machines in the years preceding the Second World War. The incomparable W25, W125 and W154 series were the result of obsessive dedication and unimaginable effort by a virtual army of engineers, designers, fabricators and support personnel. Between 1935 and 1939 these fascinating and incredibly powerful machines dominated the racetracks of Europe.

When World War II ended, Daimler-Benz again faced the devastation that the allied forces had caused to its production facilities and again it rebuilt. In the ensuing decades, the company further solidified its position as a preeminent manufacturer of both passenger and competition automobiles.

Its sports racing and sports cars of the era, the 300 SLRs and their progeny, the incomparable 300 SLs, were marvels of engineering and design innovation that continue to inspire enthusiasts more than four decades after their birth. Utilizing features generally associated with much newer vehicles, including space frame construction and fuel injection, their power and reliability formed the standard against which all of their contemporaries were evaluated.

Post war racing activities of Daimler-Benz were not confined to sports car racing. In 1953, DBAG chairman Dr. Fritz Konecke and his board of directors decided to again contest the world's greatest racing cars by entering the new Formula 1 World Championship. To that end, development of a new car, designated W196, was begun late in 1952. In one year, the first example circled the grounds of the Unterturkheim factory and, six months later, the W196 made its racing debut in the French Grand Prix in Reims. Taking up exactly where it had left off before the outbreak of war, the Mercedes Silver Arrows utterly dominated the field. Fangio was first across the finish line and his teammate Kling followed in second. The third W196, driven by Hans Herrmann, set the race lap record before being forced to retire.

In its first season the Mercedes Grand Prix team earned the Formula 1 World Championship title. And to the surprise of no one, the team repeated the feat the following year. The amazing Silver Arrows finished first in ten of the fourteen races entered in the two championship seasons.

Adding to its reputation for unsurpassed reliability and engineering excellence were the performances of Daimler-Benz's other race programs in 1955. Following a heroic one-two finish in the Targa Florio, Mercedes concluded the season with an unprecedented three world championships, becoming the first team in history to win in Formula 1, Sports Cars, and Gran Turismo titles all at the same time.

Daimler-Benz's reputation for designing and building the most advanced competition cars in the world faded somewhat following the company's retirement from racing at the conclusion of the 1955 season. But competition was kept alive through the 1960s in the form of Continental rallies, another area where the company's products dominated the field.

Beginning in 1967 and continuing with increasing importance to this day, Mercedes has established innovative partnerships with outside firms. One of these, AMG, has worked diligently to help keep the Mercedes-Benz flame burning on the world's great race courses and rally circuits in a wide variety of machinery since 1967.

Champions Again

More than three decades after it last developed and campaigned a vehicle in racing competition at the highest level, Mercedes-Benz was officially back in the 1980s. Building upon a somewhat covert relationship between the two that went back several years, a Mercedes powered sports racer built by Swiss entrepreneur and racing enthusiast Peter Sauber competed in the fiercely contested Group C category. Though it failed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the world endurance championship in 1988, two prizes the team sought, the well-developed and meticulously prepared Sauber-Mercedes was competitive with Porsche and Jaguar, and managed to take the Supercup title away from Porsche's Hans Stuck.

One year later, all of the program's objectives were realized when the Sauber C9 and C l l cars obliterated the opposition. The team won 16 out of 18 races entered in 1989, including Le Mans, and demonstrated that the amazing Silver Arrows were indeed back.

The 1990s witnessed a three-pronged assault on racing by Mercedes-Benz. The relationships with both Sauber and AMG continued to deepen, with the former in Formula 1 and the latter in touring-car racing. In addition, Mercedes entered into a risky but promising deal with Roger Penske and Ilmor to go IndyCar racing in America. Mercedes was no stranger to Indy - who can forget Ralph DePalma's famous victory in the 500 in 1915? The company returned to the Brickyard in 1994, where one of the three 500I-powered Penske cars won the race in the hands of Al Unser, Jr.

Though Daimler-Benz stayed away from racing for more than three decades after 1955, the company's proud heritage was nonetheless upheld and enhanced. After all, while the racing exploits of the various cars wearing the three-pointed star account for a large measure of the legend that is Mercedes-Benz, they are by no means the entire story. The many fine regular production, passenger and cargo carrying vehicles produced are really the foundation upon which the Mercedes mystique is built. It is these, after all, that have touched the lives of countless millions of ordinary folks who have relied on them day in and day out to haul everything from heavy cargo to precious cargo. It is these Mercedes products that people the world over have found to be, by and large, the finest engineered, safest, most durable, and most reliable vehicles they have ever driven.

The Mercedes Mystique

Thus, the "Mercedes mystique" is the culmination of all that Mercedes-Benz has accomplished. It is their legendary competition cars that have ascended the grandest heights and achieved the very pinnacle of success wherever and whenever they chose to compete. And it is more than 112 years of production vehicles that have continually defined the standards of the industry by means of technical innovation, engineering prowess, and unwavering adherence to the highest levels of quality possible.

But the Mercedes mystique is more than merely the intangible aura that has always surrounded the company's name. It is, in addition, power. Real power in the real world. It is a mystique that causes the company's stock to be valued inordinately high relative to most other automobile manufacturers, allowing the purchase of Chrysler Corporation for tens of billions of dollars. It is a mystique that, when nurtured and propagated, inspires universal respect for the company's vehicles and, quite simply, leads people to buy them.

As pointed out earlier, Mercedes recognizes that one of its most valuable assets is the mystique that results from its long and unbroken tradition and has devoted a great deal of time, effort and money to preserve, develop and foster an understanding of that tradition. To that end it established a separate corporate division called Daimler-Benz Classic which includes The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center, The Mercedes-Benz Museum, and the Daimler-Benz Classic Archive.

The purpose of the Classic Center is summed up in the words of Max-Gerrit von Pein, in charge of Daimler-Benz Classic. Says von Pein, "I see the Classic Center as an ideal way of encouraging the public to develop and maintain an interest in the Mercedes tradition." The importance of tradition is further emphasized by Classic Center director Stefan Rohrig, "We feel tradition is an essential part of the company's product image, more so than with any other car manufacturer. We want to polish and maintain the image that is Mercedes-Benz."

The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center host of the previously mentioned party in Fellbach, includes a large, well-equipped restoration workshop and a diverse staff trained to look after the needs of vintage Mercedes owners. According to director Rohrig, "The initial purpose of the Classic Center was to improve the availability of spare parts for Mercedes-Benz classic cars, and we have been highly successful in doing so. We have over 25,000 parts available and through partnerships we have developed with suppliers, we make thousands more available to our customers."

But making vintage parts and restoration services available is not all the Classic Center does. It also provides assistance in organizing club activities, offers courses to teach people how to maintain and repair vintage Mercedes, helps with people buying or selling the cars, and more. "Our goal is to look after every need of Mercedes-Benz owners," explains Rohrig, "regardless of how old their cars are."

Another mechanism for maintaining and enhancing the Mercedes image is the Mercedes-Benz Museum, located in Stuttgart. Exhibited in more than 72,000 square feet of naturally illuminated space is a continuum of vehicles that represent a comprehensive history of the company, and thus also a comprehensive portrayal of the automobile itself from its very beginnings through to the present. The facility, which is free to the public, attracts more than 500,000 visitors per year. In addition to the cars and other exhibits, it also includes a cinema, multimedia show, store, and bistro. The purpose of the Museum, like the Classic Center, is to nurture and perpetuate the company's heritage.

The Daimler-Benz Classic Archive is a superlative repository for the company's documentary history. It includes 1.5 million still photographs, voluminous film footage, an extensive collection of automotive art, some 6000 books, and document files which, if laid end-to-end, would stretch for more than five miles! According to Max-Gerrit von Pein, "It was decided that the corporate image of Mercedes-Benz should not just be based on up-to-date information but also draw increasingly on the company's unique traditions." To help preserve and foster those traditions, seven full time archivists are on hand to answer, for free, any written inquiry presented to them.

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