As a luxury automobile maker, Mercedes-Benz is known for sophisticated blends of technology and mechanics. We feel that particularly in the 21st century there is a stronger market emphasis on the comforts and features of a vehicle instead of the mechanical aspects. Improvements in the mechanical these days are primarily valued in so far as they increase fuel efficiency, provide stronger safety protection, and possibly yield a performance advantage.
Be that as it may, this year is the 120th anniversary of Mercedes-Benz as a racing company. Many people don’t know that the company’s beginning in competitive motoring began technically in the 19th century. Such an association tests the limits of what can be thought of as a “car” and as the photo gallery we found will show, it also proves that for as long as cars have existed, mankind has been trying to race them.
The gallery we’ve found is 76 fantastic photos to celebrate 120 years of Mercedes-Benz racing. The authors of the gallery actually contend that a Mercedes-Benz was present at the first ever car race in world history, which was held in 1894. It’s a well-constructed photo gallery that doesn’t make you wade through 76 individually loading pages to make it through the whole thing. We find few things more irritating than assigning only photo per page.
Instead, it’s hosted on the fantastically designed website from our friends over at Mercedes-Benz. Though not an officially sanctioned Mercedes-Benz blog, it’s been around long enough and treats the brand with such veneration that we feel proud of their representation. Our one gripe with the gallery is that, for all the stupendous images of racing vehicles across more than a century, the gallery is not organized chronologically. If you want to find 19th century examples of the automaker’s racers, they’re in there, but strangely buried.
In any case, we highly recommend this visual compendium of Mercedes-Benz racing. Should you find yourself pumped up about the vehicles at the end and want to become better acquainted with more modern models, feel free to stop by our showroom.