History
« Previous Next »Compact and reasonably-priced: Entering new segments with the ‘Baby Benz’ and the A- and B-Class
Sonntag, 7.August 2011Nallinger pressed on with his plans for a smaller Mercedes-Benz, but things did not progress quickly. The technicians and designers were way ahead of the countdown to the decision – but the road to the W 201 model series, which first appeared in 1982 with the 190 and 190 E models, was to be a [...]
Compact and reasonably-priced: Groundbreaking projects after the Second World War
Samstag, 6.August 2011After the Second World War, passenger car production commenced with the successful 170 V model, initially as an ambulance, police patrol car and delivery van. In July 1947, production of the Saloon variant also recommenced. At the same time a number of completely new vehicles were designed, some of which were very unusual creations. In [...]
Compact and reasonably-priced: Early vehicles and projects at Benz and DMG
Freitag, 5.August 2011In 1886, Carl Benz invented the automobile. His patent motor car was the first step towards individual mobility as we know it today. Following the successful introduction of the ‘Viktoria’ and ‘Vis-à-Vis’ models in 1892, he made a significant contribution to popularising the new type of vehicle with the Benz Velo in 1894: this small [...]
Compact and reasonably-priced: Mercedes-Benz 130 (W 23, 1934 to 1936)
Donnerstag, 4.August 2011Even before the W 15 model series was introduced, the engineers and technicians at Daimler-Benz once again embarked on the task of developing an even more reasonably priced and compact entry-level model.
Board member Wilhelm Kissel, from 1937 to 1942 Chairman of the Board of Daimler-Benz AG, had not forgotten the success which had been achieved [...]
Compact and reasonably-priced: the smaller car in the history of Daimler AG
Montag, 1.August 2011The desire for vehicles with a compact exterior and at the same time the ‘inner values’ of a high-quality interior has been a constant underlying theme throughout the entire history of Daimler AG and its predecessors.
The Stuttgart-based company – whose own domains have traditionally comprised product segments occupied by the luxury and upper mid-range [...]
Juan Manuel Fangio – A racing legend
Freitag, 24.Juni 2011Racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio was the leading figure in Mercedes-Benz’s campaign to win the Formula 1 World Championship in the 1954 and 1955 seasons. Fangio formed an almost symbiotic partnership with the W 196 R racing car: “It’s the perfect car. The machine which every driver dreams about their whole life long,” he once [...]
Fresh clues to the birthplace of Carl Benz
Mittwoch, 8.Juni 2011In the year of the 125th anniversary of the automobile, an important gap has now been closed in the life story of Carl Benz, and therefore also in the corporate history of Daimler AG.
The latest historical research suggests that the inventor of the automobile was born in a guesthouse at Rheinstrasse 22 in the [...]
13 April 1931: Rudolf Caracciola wins the Mille Miglia
Freitag, 13.Mai 2011What a triumph! In April 1931, Rudolf Caracciola was the first non-Italian to win the famous Mille Miglia road race. Alongside his co-driver Wilhelm Sebastian, the Mercedes-Benz works team driver won the 1,635km race, which took place from 12 to 13 April 1931, in a Mercedes-Benz SSKL racing car (W 06 RS).
Caracciola achieved an average [...]
The “small” roadsters from Mercedes-Benz: Evolution of sheer driving pleasure – from the 190 SL to the SLK
Mittwoch, 13.April 2011The new Mercedes-Benz SLK features a new, exciting design, exceptionally high levels of comfort for a roadster, as well as exquisite technology and no shortage of open-air driving pleasure. As such, the agile sports car already in its third generation looks set to continue a success story which started back in 1994, with a show [...]
50 years of automatic transmissions from Mercedes-Benz
Dienstag, 12.April 2011“The ultimate driving experience”, proclaimed the brochure on the first automatic transmission developed in-house by Mercedes-Benz back in 1961. Several years of intensive development work went into the four-speed automatic clutch which was premiered in April 1961 as an optional extra for the 220 SEb model of the 111 series.
The automatic transmission even featured [...]
Diesel engines in Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles
Montag, 4.April 2011Along with the six-cylinder OM 5 engine, after 1926 Mercedes-Benz developed a new one-cylinder engine which it fitted into the OE diesel tractor in 1928. The engine displaced 4.2 litres and had an output of 19 kW (26 hp) at 800 rpm.
1932 – First production light truck with a diesel engine
The Lo 2000 was the [...]
BlueTec, CDI BlueEFFICIENCY and BlueTec HYBRID – The future of the compression-ignition engine
Montag, 28.März 2011By optimising the diesel engine, Mercedes-Benz has time and again been setting new milestones for the future of the internal combustion engine. With BlueTec and CDI BlueEFFICIENCY models, in particular, Mercedes-Benz engineers have succeeded in recent years in making the powerful and economical diesel engine as clean as the petrol engine.
In 2010 all CDI [...]
Prosper L’Orange and the modern diesel engine – From ship to road
Dienstag, 22.März 2011The diesel engine was not ready for the step from stationary and marine use to installation in the automobile until after 1920. The engineering achievement which this development represents was the work of Prosper L’Orange, an engineer working for Benz & Cie since 1908.
In Mannheim he devoted himself to making Rudolf Diesel’s dream reality: [...]
Diesel in motor sport, research and record-breaking cars
Sonntag, 20.März 20111923 – Truck test trip from Stuttgart to Berlin and back
The new truck of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) needed ten days for its test drive in September 1923. The commercial vehicle with the new air-injection diesel engine (29 kW/40 hp at 1000 rpm) demonstrated its practical usefulness on a journey from Berlin to Stuttgart and back. The [...]
Debut of diesel engines in tractors and trucks
Freitag, 18.März 2011The first land vehicle the Benz diesel engine saw use in was a tractor in 1922. The Mannheim firm developed the three-wheeled vehicle together with the Munich engine and tractor maker Sendling. Benz and Sendling displayed the prototype at a 1922 agricultural exhibition in Königsberg, today Kaliningrad, and immediately found buyers for this vehicle and [...]
Diesel engines in Mercedes-Benz passenger cars
Dienstag, 15.März 2011Mercedes-Benz held a sensation in store at the February 1936 International Automobile and Motorcycle Show in Berlin: in the model 260 D (W 138 series) the diesel engine swept into the passenger car world. In the year of the Olympic Games the Stuttgart company introduced this model as the world’s first production diesel car. It [...]
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