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100 years Targa Florio 1924 - Mercedes wins, camouflaged in red

Name: Mercedes 2-Liter-Targa-Florio-Rennwagen 1924
Brand: Mercedes

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Created on September 12, 2024

Text:

Gerhard Schütz

Photos:

Mercedes-Benz AG

Archiv Gerhard Schütz

Mercedes-Benz AG

Archiv Gerhard Schütz

Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - drive to the pits to change tires and refuel

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - start of training in January for the Targa Florio

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - The Mercedes team before leaving for the Targa Florio in 1924

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Full throttle around the bend

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - On the Madonie circuit

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Free drifting in the natural arena of the Sicilian mountains

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - full speed in front of spectators on the outside track

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Past spectators

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Werner at the pit stop - wheel change by the co-driver

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Neubauer and his co-driver with starting number 23

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Lautenschlager and his co-driver with starting number 32

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Lautenschlager and his co-driver took second place

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - At the Trevi Fountain in Rome

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - winner Christian Werner

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Werner with his co-driver on arrival at the Untertürkheim plant after winning the Targa and Coppa Florio

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The later Mercedes racing manager Neubauer

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Ferdinand Porsche (center) brought Neubauer to Mercedes

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Neubauer at the wheel - final advice from designer Ferdinand Porsche

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Exhaust side of the racing engine with compressor

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - view of the exhaust side of the 2-liter car

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - 2-OHC cylinder head with mercury-filled exhaust valves

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - compressor (Roots blower) between radiator and engine

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Rear chassis extension for the spare wheels

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - creased radiator grille

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Spartan cockpit

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Sporty silhouette

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Multi-tone horn against chickens and donkey teams

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Still obligatory in training in the seventies: powerful horn, here even in a triad

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The plaque motif in the dynamic style of the time: a racing car amidst a crowd of horses

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - One of the surviving cars as it appeared in 1988

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - The red racing car back on the road

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - commissioning after restoration on the driveway of the Mercedes-Benz plant in Untertürkheim in April 2024

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Lautenschlager's racing car freshly restored for the 100th anniversary of Mercedes Classic

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Freshly spruced up after 100 years

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Authentic reproduction of the steering wheel for driving applications to protect the sensitive original

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - Research of original photos in the Mercedes-Benz Classic archives

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - bodywork in collaboration with MCW Carrosserie en Wagenbouw

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - "marriage" of body and engine at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - work on the engine in collaboration with Dieter Braun

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - After restoration at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach

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Mercedes 2-liter Targa Florio racing car (1924) - completion of the restoration work at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Fellbach

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Mercedes 2-Liter-Targa-Florio-Rennwagen (1924) - Die Mercedes-Mannschaft vor der Abreise zur Targa Florio im Jahr 1924

Mercedes 2-Liter-Targa-Florio-Rennwagen (1924) - Vollgas um die Kurve

Mercedes 2-Liter-Targa-Florio-Rennwagen (1924) - Auf der Madonie-Rundstrecke

Mercedes 2-Liter-Targa-Florio-Rennwagen (1924) - Freies Driften in der Naturarena der sizilianischen Berge

Mercedes 2-Liter-Targa-Florio-Rennwagen (1924) - Full Speed vor Zuschauern an der Aussenbahn

Summary

The Targa Florio - founded in 1906 by Conte Vincenzo Florio - was one of the most spectacular races of the racing season until 1977. The international race attracted the most famous racing cars and drivers to the island of Sicily. This retrospective celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Mercedes victory at the Targa Florio and presents an original, freshly restored racing car.

This article contains the following chapters

The winning car
The engine
Chassis, suspension and gearbox
Test drives
The race
The Targa

Estimated reading time: 5min

Preview (beginning of the article)

Founded in 1906 by Conte Vincenzo Florio, this international race in the Sicilian mountains was one of the most spectacular of the racing season until 1977. The country road course, which was still partly unpaved in the early years, always provided dramatic scenes and thrilling images. Nowhere else was racing so intensively embedded in the landscape, nowhere else was it so close to the regional population and the public - unthinkable from today's perspective, the age of the retort racetrack. This makes it all the more appealing to revive such pure racing in text and pictures. The basic concept of the Mercedes was developed in 1922 by Paul Daimler, the son of founder Gottlieb Daimler. In 1923, it was entered in Indy and skipped the Targa. Indy ruthlessly exposed the design's weaknesses. The newcomer Ferdinand Porsche eliminated them for 1924. He also began to design an in-line 8-cylinder engine, as the time of the four-cylinder had now come to an end. Bugatti, for example, was already racing in the 1923 Tours Grand Prix with 8-cylinder engines, Delage even with V-12 cylinders.

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