I’m going to solid my loyalties apart and admit it: Mercedes-Benz has been making a few of Germany’s greatest automobiles for over a century.
Not simply Germany however the entire world, for that matter. I don’t suppose that’s up for debate both, irrespective of what number of cubic inches you want below the hood or what number of waifu pillows you’ve in your mattress.
It’s an opinion I’ve maintained for years, but it surely was actually cemented throughout my go to to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany final November.
In spite of everything, no different producer can declare to be the one who invented the motor automotive, can they?
It’s unimaginable simply what number of legendary and as-new Mercedes-Benz icons are gathered below one roof, from the earliest examples of pick-up vans to a trio of SLs and even a Sauber C9 as a part of the motorsport show. The vary of automobiles produced by Mercedes-Benz is just astounding.
Talking of motorsport, seeing the swap of Germany’s nationwide racing color from white to silver earlier than my very eyes was a reminder of how a lot affect Mercedes-Benz has at all times had on the automotive world. ‘White Arrows’ does sound form of cool, however the ‘Silver Arrows’ has rather more of a hoop to it.
The place else may you see a 6.9-litre V8 SEL parked subsequent to an Argentine bus? Or how a couple of Mercedes-Benz Actros automotive transporter carrying an SEC, SE and 220 wagon on its again?
Mercedes-Benz has an amazing fame for each luxurious and reliability the world-over.
Who’d have thought that Idi Amin and Carmela Soprano have been each keen on the three-pointed star, eh?
And that’s earlier than we even issue within the engineering powerhouse that’s AMG. The foresight Mercedes-Benz needed to buy the well-known tuner was unimaginable, and it led to AMG making a bonafide efficiency automotive vary in home at Mercedes-Benz, resulting in F1 domination.
How about Maybach? Being circled from an all-but-forgotten model into a real Rolls-Royce rival… then failing, admittedly, however as soon as once more being reborn as a vastly profitable sub-brand below Mercedes-Maybach.
BMW buying Alpina involves thoughts, however I can’t assist suppose the Büchloe model will merely develop into a trim degree within the close to future…
The highlights of my go to to the Mercedes-Benz Museum have been the pre-war automobiles, particularly the sporting fashions. I’ve seen the ridiculous quantities they’ve offered for at public sale over time, and their successes at occasions like the celebrated Pebble Seaside Concours d’Class, but it surely by no means made that a lot sense to me.
Manufacturers equivalent to Bugatti, Delahaye, Duesenberg and Hispano-Suiza have an unimaginable attract attributable to their fame on the higher echelon of the automotive business in its youth. Mercedes-Benz, nonetheless, make vans and vans and compact automobiles – however I used to be completely bewitched as soon as I noticed their early fashions in particular person.
Big and imposing, with gorgeous curves from each angle and unimaginable particulars each in and out. Standing subsequent to them, I felt like a Hollywood star – or maybe a Bond villain.
There’s an indescribable sense of high quality that radiates from previous Mercedes-Benz fashions. It’s virtually as if each automotive within the museum was chiselled from granite or tungsten.
Let me put it to you this manner. I used to be lucky sufficient to be given a 560 SEC to make use of for a few months, and the expertise has stayed with me. The steering was heavy, the doorways even heavier, and the view over the bonnet was presidential. What I liked probably the most nonetheless have been the air vents.
There’s no flimsy little knob to regulate them; as an alternative you progress all the metallic vent meeting up and right down to direct air circulation, and the plastic vanes have their very own devoted slide meeting.
If an air-vent can be so over-engineered, simply take into consideration how strong the automobiles was once below the pores and skin, eh?
Mario Christou
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