Mercedes and Benz Racing 1900-1955

Résumé
Mercedes and Benz Racing 1900-1955 is an appreciation of the incredible racing performances from 1900 up to 1955 when Daimler-Benz withdrew from Grand Prix and Sports car racing: the first 55 years of trials, tribulations, victories, setbacks, and the external influences that impacted on the Mercedes-Benz racing department.

Échantillon de lecture
As mentioned in the prologue, Gottlieb Daimler’s health during 1898-89 was failing, and he passed away on 6 March 1900 at 3am. Max Wilhelm Heinrich von Duttenhofer had joined the Daimler Motor Company during the 1890s. A financial man and a member of the board, he now found himself, along with Emil Jellinek, who was elected to the board on 2 April 1900, and other board members, released from the conservative thinking of the late Gottlieb. They were free to move forward as they wished. Strangely, at this point neither Paul Daimler (who was by now a brilliant engineer) nor his brother Adolf (an engineer but also a technical administrative specialist) were yet on the board of directors. For racing during 1900 we need to turn to the Panhards, which were still using the Daimler V-twin Phoenix engine to great effect, though four-cylinder Daimler engines were probably also available during 1900. During the 1890s the first races for the new automobiles – ‘cars’ – had mostly run from town to town, across long distances, as we have seen in France, Germany and Austria. But in 1900 we come to what was probably the first circuit-type race, held on a 44.73-mile (72km) triangular course near the town of Melun in France. It was organised by the journal La France Automobile on 18 February 1900, and named the ‘Course du Catalogue’. Six classes of car took part, classified according to chassis size and price, all racing against the clock. A Panhard driven by Léonce Girardot set the fastest time and won the event. Baron Henri de Rothschild, who was driving one of the 1899 Cannstatt Daimlers, a 24hp Phoenix racing car, bet he would cover the 72km distance in 72 minutes, but he lost the bet when his drive chain broke passing through the village of Nangis. The Circuit du Sud-Ouest followed on 22 February. This time it was René de Knyff, previously winner of the first Tour de France Automobile, who won in a Panhard in 4h 46m 57s, at an average speed of 43.8mph (70.48km/h) over the 209.5-mile (337.15km) course – some 40 minutes ahead of the next competitor! At the Nice to Marseilles and back race on 26 March René de Knyff was again declared the winner in the Panhard in a weather-disrupted event ahead of three other similar cars. On 18 April 1900, Emil Jellinek put in an injection of cash along with an order to the Cannstatt Daimler factory for 36 new ‘Mercedes’ cars, as the marque was now to be known, and he wanted at least one racing car to be ready for the 1901 Grand Prix of Pau in France. The new name came from Jellinek’s daughter, Mercedes Adrienne Ramona Manuela, who had been born in 1889. Emil Jellinek had almost limitless wealth and was the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian General Consul in the principality of Monaco.