Béla Barényi posed with the F-55 mobile mock-up that remained as evidence of a great ambition to create a versatile automobile for the Mercedes-Benz roster.
Mercedes

The Charmer That Escaped Mercedes

Madness or a viable vision? Sixty years ago Daimler-Benz authorized brilliant engineer Béla Barényi to design and build the “everyday car of tomorrow.” Regrettably it was realized only as a beguiling prototype.

Avatar photoKarl Ludvigsen

“The Star of Your Dreams” was a popular encouragement in early 1939, when 32-year-old engineer Béla Barényi saw this Mercedes-Benz poster for the first time. He must have wondered whether his own dream — to work for Mercedes-Benz, the brand with the star — was ever destined to become reality.

Béla Barényi posed with the F-55 mobile mock-up that remained as evidence of a great ambition to create a versatile automobile for the Mercedes-Benz roster.

A year earlier Barényi had applied to the Head of Design at Mercedes, Max Wagner, but received another rejection. After another year spent looking for work, Barényi contacted his former colleague, Karl Wilfert, an engineer of his own age with whom he had worked at Steyr in Austria years earlier. Wilfert, then heading experimental body design for Mercedes, helped arrange an interview for Barényi with Dr. Wilhelm Haspel, a member of the board of management.

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Karl Ludvigsen
Karl E. Ludvigsen is a journalist, author, and historian of the automotive industry and motorsports. Karl Ludvigsen is the author of the definitive history of Porsche. His Porsche history, Excellence was Expected, is considered to be a model of the researching and writing of the history of an auto company. Ludvigsen is an honorary member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America and the Corvair Society of America. He is also a member of the council of the Historic Automobile Group.
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