Mercedes is known throughout the world as a symbol of wealth and class. Mercedes Benz cars are well known for its quality and durability. Did you know that all Mercedes cars are personally signed off to maintain its quality by top engineers in the automotive industry? The history of Mercedes Benz goes back almost 150 years ago back to when Gottlieb Daimler got together with Karl Benz to form this brand that we all know today.More than a hundred years ago, the birth of two men set the history of Mercedes Benz. Gottlieb Daimler was born in Germany. A decade later, Karl Benz was born also in Germany. Interesting enough, there were 60 miles apart but they both shared a common interest. At a very young age, both were already exposed to machines but both had different approaches to building cars which no one believed at that time they will merge.In the year 1886, Karl Benz made his first motorized tricycle which was soon followed by a four-wheeler in 1893. Daimler on the other hand built a horseless carriage in 1886 and two years later struck a deal with William Steinway to produce his horseless carriages in the United States. Steinway produced Mercedes cars and trucks for 3 years. This was a stepping stone for the history of Mercedes Benz.The war in Germany, played a very important role to the birth of this prestigious car. With a downfall in economy, there were little or no fuel for cars and a high tax of 15% made automobile production disastrous and because of this, Benz sought for a strong partner considering DMG but was rejected initially. Then, the economy became worse and there were very few cars in the United States with only a third of cars produced by each Benz, Ford and DMG. Due to necessity, Benz and DMG signed an agreement of mutual interest while maintaining the individual identities.The greatest achievement in the history of Mercedes is when both DMG and Benz merged. There was an insignia made for the merger of both companies. The insignia was a three pointed star with a laurel around it with the words Mercedes on the top and Benz at the bottom. The merge was very successful and production their cars rose to about 7000 automobiles in 1927. In 1930, the largest and most prestigious car was launched and Mercedes Benz remained one of the leading brand in automotive industry till today.Main article: Mercedes-Benz in motorsport
A DMG Mercedes Simplex 1906 in the Deutsches Museum
1957 Mercedes-Benz 300Sc Cabriolet
1959 Mercedes-Benz W120 Model 180
The two companies which were merged to form the Mercedes-Benz brand in 1926 had both already enjoyed success in the new sport of motor racing throughout their separate histories—both had entries in the very first automobile race Paris to Rouen 1894. This has continued, and throughout its long history, the company has been involved in a range of motorsport activities, including sports car racing and rallying. On several occasions Mercedes-Benz has withdrawn completely from motorsport for a significant period, notably in the late 1930s, and after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, where a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR collided with another car and killed more than 80 spectators. Stirling Moss and co-driver Denis Jenkinson made history by winning the 1955 Mille Miglia road race in Italy during a record-breaking drive with an average speed was almost 98 mph in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR.[49]
Although there was some activity in the intervening years, it was not until 1987 that Mercedes-Benz returned to front line competition, returning to Le Mans, Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM), and Formula One with Sauber. The 1990s saw Mercedes-Benz purchase British engine builder Ilmor (now Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines), and campaign IndyCars under the USAC/CART rules, eventually winning the 1994 Indianapolis 500 and 1994 CART IndyCar World Series Championship with Al Unser, Jr. at the wheel. The 1990s also saw the return of Mercedes-Benz to GT racing, and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, both of which took the company to new heights by dominating the FIAs GT1 class.
Mercedes-Benz is currently active in three forms of motorsport, Formula Three, DTM and Formula One.
