German

Having commenced manufacture with a short run of aluminum-bodied cars built at Gmund, Porsche began volume production of the steel-bodied 356 coupe at its old base in Stuttgart. The work of Ferry Porsche, the 356 was based on the Volkswagen designed by his father. Like the immortal Beetle, the 356 employed a platform-type chassis with…

The merger of Daimler and Benz in the mid 1920s came at a time of acute difficulty for the German motor industry. Competition success such as Rudolf Caracciola’s 1930 European Hillclimb Championship in a supercharged SSK helped sales, which had risen to 6,000 in 1932 from a workforce reduced to 9,000 by the virtual closure…

Originally introduced in 1951 at the Frankfurt Show, the Mercedes-Benz 300 range was very much a flagship designed to promote the Stuttgart manufacturer as a producer of the finest luxury cars; a design it undoubtedly achieved, ultimately offering imposing and elegant six seater coachwork, in either closed or open form, allied to a smooth and…

The year after production of the legendary 911 had commenced in 1964, Porsche introduced the similarly bodied 912 as an entry-level model to the prestigious German marque. As such, it shared its monocoque steel chassis with that of the 911, together with independent front torsion bar and trailing arm rear suspension with all-around disc brakes.…

{vsig}1998-10_1813{/vsig} This Porsche 917K coupe is one of the most historic available survivors of this titanic breed. Most significantly, it is one of only five World Championship-level race-winning 917s outside factory ownership.In 1971, entered by the Martini-Porsche team and co-driven by Vic Elford and Gerard Larrousse, it won America’s most charismatic World Championship-qualifying endurance race:…

In 1952 there were only four Porsche 356 Cabriolets sold in the United States out of 294 produced by the Porsche Werke in Zuffenhausen. Back in ’51, about the only way to buy a 356 in this country was through New York importer Max Hoffman. The early cabriolets were among his best-selling cars, helping to…

Porsche Spyders are excellent dual-purpose collectibles, equally at home on the track or on road tours such as the Colorado Grand One of the last 4-cam Spyders built, this tidy RS 61, chassis 718070, possesses a proud racing pedigree, an impressive list of owners, and a degree of authenticity found in few others. Constructed in…

For those insufficiently wealthy to afford its expensive race-bred sportscar, the 300SL, Mercedes-Benz offered the less-exotic 190SL. Based on the 180 saloon, the 190 made use of the latter’s running gear; this comprised independent front suspension by means of wishbones and coil springs, single-pivot swing axe at the rear, plus drum brakes all round. Announced…

{vsig}1997-10_1619{/vsig} The three-liter, six-cylinder 300S model Mercedes-Benz was first exhibited in October 1951 at the Paris Salon and production began in 1952. It was designed for the discriminating sports car enthusiast, and was to follow on the pre-war concept of the famous 500K and 540K Series cars that matched elegance with power. These new Singelfingen…

It would indeed have been a shame if BMW had confined the use of its first V8 engine range merely to its saloon cars of the 1950s. Had that been the case, the world would have been denied what is arguably the Bavarian marque’s finest post-war sports car-the glamorous, high-performance 507. The V8, the work…