History of the Mercedes series
Mercedes was a brand in the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) which began to develop in 1901, after the death of its co-founder, Gottlieb Daimler.
On 30 March 1900, a few weeks after the death of Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Bauer decided spontaneously to enter the Nice-La Turbie hill climb, but crashed fatally after hitting a rock on the first turn while avoiding spectators. This caused DMG to abandon racing.
Nonetheless, Emil Jellinek came to an agreement with DMG on 2 April 1900 by promising the large sum of 550,000 Goldmark if Wilhelm Maybach would design a revolutionary sports car for him, later to be called the Mercedes 35 hp, of which 36 units had to be delivered before 15 October. The contract also included an order for 36 standard DMG 8 hp cars. Jellinek soon became a member of the DMG Board of Management and obtained the exclusive dealership for the model—that would become the new Mercedes 35 hp—for France, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, and United States of America. However, the first one was not delivered to Jellinek until 22 December.
Jellinek laid down strict specifications for the new model stating "I don't want a car for today or tomorrow, it will be the car of the day after tomorrow". He itemized many new parameters to overcome the problems found in many of the ill-designed "horseless carriages" of the time which made automobiles unsuitable for high speeds and at risk of overturning:
A new engine, developed for the model, would be called the Daimler-Mercedes engine, officially, which the DMG chairman accepted readily as it overcame the problem of the Daimler name in France being owned by Panhard & Levassor.
Over the next few months, Jellinek oversaw the development of the new car—at first by daily telegrams—and later by traveling to Stuttgart. He took delivery of the first one on 22 December 1900, at Nice's railway station—it had already been sold to the Baron Henri de Rothschild, who also had raced cars in Nice.
In 1901, the car amazed the automobile world. Jellinek again won the Nice races, easily beating his opponents in all the capacity classes and reaching 60 km/h. The director of the French Automobile Club, Paul Meyan, stated: "We have entered the Mercedes era", a sentiment echoed by newspapers worldwide.
The records set by the new Mercedes 35 hp model amazed the entire automobile world. DMG's sales shot up, its Stuttgart plant was operating at full capacity, and it was consolidating its future as an automobile manufacturer—rather than merely an engine manufacturer who built some automobiles. The number of employees steadily increased from 340 in 1900 to 2,200 in 1904.
Mercedes was not lodged as a trade name for DMG automobile models until 23 June 1902, but soon the company decided to use the name as the trade name for its entire line of automobile models—and officially registered it on 26 September 1902.
- Long wheelbase and wide track to provide stability
- Engine to be better positioned on the car's chassis
- Lower centre of gravity
- Electric ignition using the new Bosch system (in lieu of a gas heated glow tube)
