Mercedes 300 Adenauer, the 1950s luxury liner

 Affixed to a car, the number 300 might not mean too much anymore nowadays, but back in the 1950s and 1960s that number carried a lot of weight in the automotive world. Chrysler used it for its V8 hemi powered fast C-300 starting in 1955 and is still using it successfully today. The same goes […]

Read the full article →

Mercedes 220 SE coupe and cabriolet, a timeless classic

The date of the introduction of the Mercedes 220 SE Coupe was carefully chosen. It was not as usual an international automobile show, this time it was the opening of the Daimler-Benz Museum in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim on Feb. 24th, 1961 and the celebration of the company’s 75th anniversary. First sketches of the new car’s shape appeared […]

Read the full article →

A Mercedes 180D called Bakkie

One of the major tasks of Daimler-Benz after the war was the rebuilding of their factories and the increase of export business. Traditionally one of the biggest export markets was South America, where a sizeable part of the Mercedes 170 export sales went. In order to avoid costly import taxes, those cars were usually shipped […]

Read the full article →

Mercedes 250S, SE W108: Mercedes elegance at its best

The Mercedes 250S, SE W108 series was a welcome change to the fintails. The earlier cars had followed the philosophy that one design caters in variations to the needs of people from the taxi driver to the chief executive. Naturally the taxi driver did not complain, but the CEO did. The new W108 was not […]

Read the full article →

Mercedes 300SL and other superb cars at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed

One of a handful surviving original Mercedes 300SL W194 rally cars from 1952 Finally there is a garden party without the usual small talk, with an exquisite buffet, where you have no chance to actually smell the food on offer. The Gurney Pavilion at the Goodwood House is way too noisy for any conversation and […]

Read the full article →

300 SL Mercedes Gullwing in a modern wind tunnel

300 SL Mercedes, 300 SL W194 and 300 S tested in a wind tunnel In the so-called good old days, cars were styled by intuition, not by wind tunnels. That way we have great cars such as the 300 SL Mercedes Gullwing, styled by Karl Wilfert or the equally important 300 Adenauer and its sibling […]

Read the full article →

Is the new 2013 Mercedes SL R231 better than its predecessor?

This is the sixth Mercedes SL generation carrying the iconic name, if one does not count the 190SL (which Mercedes does not seem to do). Each generation lasted on average some 11.5 years and each of them has managed to set technical benchmarks for its time, the very first one even in two categories: design […]

Read the full article →

Mercedes AMG makes a golden entry at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival

 Weather in Cannes can be in May sometimes less than kind to its visitors, no matter whether they are stars, starlets or just visitors. All of them want to be part or at least get a glimpse of all the glitter around the Cannes film festival, called “Palme d’Or” or Golden Palm. The festival is […]

Read the full article →

The Mercedes G-Class and its 2012 upgrades

So far I have not yet written a book about the Mercedes G-Class model that has taken on, just as the famous SL, a life of its own. So I start with a blog instead first. No Mercedes can look back to such a long production history. Like another icon in this category, the Range Rover, […]

Read the full article →

Mercedes W111 sedan, the car for America

The Mercedes W111 220b – 220SE and 230S (1959-1968) Prof. Fritz Nallinger, chief engineer and member of the Mercedes executive board, asked Rudolf Uhlenhaut (head of passenger car development), Karl Wilfert (head of body development) and Josef Müller (head of engine development) for a meeting to discuss the ponton successor. That was in early 1956. […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →

google679f6549e4281d15.html