1904 Mercedes-Simplex

The Mercedes, with its pressed steel frame, honeycomb radiator, mechanically operated inlet valves, gate-change gearbox and other advanced features was truly the fore-runner of the modern motorcar, and in its day was widely copied by manufacturers both in

The Mercedes, with its pressed steel frame, honeycomb radiator, mechanically operated inlet valves, gate-change gearbox and other advanced features was truly the fore-runner of the modern motorcar, and in its day was widely copied by manufacturers both in Europe and America.

If it was the “Sixty” which first established the marque as an international race winner, however it was the German factory’s less ferocious and more civilized models for the touring motorist which were destined to sweep aside all competitors and to advance the cause of automobilism in one giant leap. The man responsible for this was Daimler’s chief engineer, Wilhelm Maybach, and his original 1901 car first showed its paces to the public driven by Wilhelm Werner at the Nice Speed Trials and La Turbie hillclimb, where it took the victor’s laurels.

The new car had been built largely as a result of pressure put upon the Daimler factory by Emil Jellinek, a wealthy admirer of...