Sexy Seductress

Mercedes-Benz’ incredibly successful first half of the 20th century was going to be a really tough act to follow. Ritter von Stern immediately set the Stuttgart firm on the road to untold glory in 1900 by winning the touring car class of a race at Semmering, Austria, in a 28 hp Daimler and won the same race outright the following year in a Mercedes 35 hp. After that, there was no stopping them. Between 1901 and 1939, the company’s cars went on to win six European championships, five German national titles, the 1939 German Road Racing Championship, 39 Grands Prix, the Indianapolis 500 twice, the Targa Florio three times, the 1931 Mille Miglia and a multitude of lesser races.

Their drivers became legends in their own time: many of their names are pillars of motor racing history and include Camille Jenatzy, Christian Lautenschlager, David Bruce-Brown, Ralph de Palma, Giulio Masetti, Rudolf Caracciola, Hermann Lang, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Dick Seaman. Their cars attained equal, if not greater, glory; among them were: the Gordon Bennett Cup winning Mercedes 60 hp, the Blitzen-Benz record breaker, the Benz Teardrop, Mercedes-Benz S, the SSK, the SSKL, the MB Formula, W125, W154, W165. A staggering inventory, which could in no way coexist with failure at the start of the second half of the century.