The long racing career of the Mercedes GP racing car from 1914

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The long racing career of the Mercedes GP racing car from 1914

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Created on April 21, 2014

Text:

Werner Bartholai

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

13

Daimler AG

22

Mercedes Benz Classic

5

Copyright Daimler AG

5

Bruno von Rotz

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46

Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - the chassis was designed at the rear and front so that the car's center of gravity was as low as possible

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - the Grand Prix car at the Techno Classica 2014

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - a large radiator, narrow wheels

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - built as light as possible

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - two spare wheels - the tires were one of the weak points of these cars

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - simply designed workplace without any instrumentation

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - the GP car at the Techno Classica 2014

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - interesting comparison to the Mercedes Benz W165 Silver Arrow

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - the crank handle for the starting procedure at the front

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - built as narrow as possible

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - external handbrake

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - looks almost like a new car

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - Steering wheel with levers for adjusting the pre-ignition

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - Instruments for oil pressure and engine speed

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Control instrument on the rear of the car

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Fuel lines

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - exhaust pipes almost as thick as an arm

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - two stars on the front, but without border

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Sectional drawing through the GP car shows the technology

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - the winning car of Christian Lautenschlager at the French Grand Prix of 1914

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - the winning car of the 1914 French GP

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - the racing car as it was used at the French Grand Prix in 1914

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - View into the engine compartment of the GP racing car with 115 hp

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - four separate cylinders, each with two intake and exhaust valves

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - two four-valve engines, the new car is a Mercedes Benz 190 E 2.3-16

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Mercedes Grand Prix car (1914) - Group photo of the successful Mercedes team at the 1914 French Grand Prix

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Mercedes Grand Prix car (1914) - The successful three from the 1914 French Grand Prix - Christian Lautenschlager as winner (28), Otto Salzer second (39) and Louis Wagner (40) third - picture taken in Untertürkheim

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Louis Wagner during the French Grand Prix near Lyon on July 4, 1914

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - only driver Louis Wagner and his co-driver are allowed to work on the car at the French Grand Prix, this is strictly controlled

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Mercedes Grand Prix car (1914) - Otto Salzer finishes second in the advanced Mercedes with a displacement of 4.5 liters, four valves per cylinder and an overhead camshaft driven by a king shaft

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Mercedes Grand Prix car (1914) - for the French Grand Prix, the long-stroke four-cylinder 4.5-liter engine produced 172 hp at 3,450 rpm

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Mercedes Grand Prix car (1914) - Christian Lautenschlager won the French Grand Prix near Lyon

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - the GP racing car with 4.5 liter displacement and bolt-on fenders

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - the Mercedes racing cars lined up for the departure to Italy for the Targa Florio, Paul Scheer, Giuolio Masetti, Christian Lautenschlager, Max Sailer and Christian Werner

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Count Giulio Masetti wins the Pontassieve hill climb with the fastest time of the day and a new record

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Count Giulio Masetti wins the Targa Florio in 1922 in the already eight-year-old GP car

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Italian Grand Prix in Brescia - Count Giulio Masetti won the amateur championship title in 1921

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - before the start of the Targa Florio 1922 - Christian Lautenschlager with co-driver Hemminger - Lautenschlager came second

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - Return of the cars from the Targa Florio - Otto Salzer and August Grupp

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - modified version with Targa Florio chassis and supercharger, as driven by Otto Salzer at the Semmering Race on September 14, 1924

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - Otto Salzer with a converted GP racing car with Targa Florio chassis and supercharger, winner of the 1924 Semmering Race in the over 3 liter class, but the overall classification was won by someone else

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - Rudolf Caracciola with the 4.5 liter and supercharger at the international Semmering race on September 12, 1926 - he wins in the racing car class up to 5 liters

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 liter (1914) - Rolls-Royce adopted some design principles from the innovative racing car engine when developing its aircraft engine

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - one of the remaining GP racing cars

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Mercedes Grand Prix 4.5 Liter (1914) - one of the surviving Grand Prix cars

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Mercedes Grand Prix car (1914) - Mercedes Benz celebrates 120 years of motorsport - Rétromobile Paris 2014

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Summary

The successful racing career of the Mercedes GP racing car from 1914, powered by an innovative four-valve, four-cylinder engine that revved higher than all its competitors, lasted 16 years. Equipped only with rear brakes, the car won the French Grand Prix in 1914 thanks to its extra power, while the competition already had brakes on all wheels. The concept was so successful that victories were possible again and again over a period of around 15 years. This report will briefly go into some technical details, summarize the racing successes and show the car in many historical and current pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

New regulations, new solutions
Triple victory at the Grand Prix in France
World War I caesura
Inspiration for aircraft engine

Estimated reading time: 3min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Just imagine if Lewis Hamilton were to line up at the Monaco Grand Prix on May 25, 2014 in the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-16, built for the 2001 season. And win! Unthinkable? Yes, that's true, but not unusual 100 years ago, because the Mercedes GP racing car from 1914 was winning races until 1927 and car technology was not necessarily developing any slower back then than it is today. Otherwise, Carl-Friedrich Benz would probably not have been immortalized in 1920 with the following saying: "The car is fully developed. What else can come?" In 1914, however, there was still a lot of development going on, and for good reason. The regulations for the French Grand Prix limited the weight of a racing car to 1100 kg and at the same time the engine displacement to 4.5 liters, whereas engines with a displacement of over 10 liters had been used in earlier years. Mercedes had nothing suitable on the shelf and had to completely redesign the engine.

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