PAST IMPERFECT:In 1903, the Mercedes 60 was the most responsive and best performing car the world had ever seen, writes BOB MONTGOMERY
THE FRANKFURT Motor Show 2009: one of the great showcases of the motor industry, symbolised for many by the launch of the latest supercars, a few of this year’s examples being the Ferrari 458 Italia, the incredible ground-breaking Audi e-Tron electric supercar and the delectable Mercedes SLS AMG.
Ah, the Mercedes SLS AMG, a retro supercar taking its inspiration from the racing Mercedes of the 1950s.
In truth, Mercedes can go back further than the 1950s for supercar inspiration, right back, in fact, to the very first supercar, the Mercedes 60 of 1903.
Today, this is a car apart, just as it was when introduced in 1903. The racing world was then dominated by larger and larger-engined purpose-built racing cars, far removed from the cars that could be bought and used on the road.
But the 60 was different. It embodied much technical innovation and in several areas set the pattern for generations of high performance road cars that were to follow.
Featuring a throttle-controlled engine, the 60’s engine was highly refined compared to anything else available. It also featured Maybach’s other great innovation – the gate gearchange, which permitted the driver, for the first time, to change from any ratio into the gear of his choice without first having to go through the intermediate gears.
Added to these features was a new honeycomb radiator and, for the first time, all the features that were to define the modern car came together. The result was electrifying.
Making their debut at the Nice Speed trials of 1903, Prince Lubecki won the mountain event while Otto Hieronymus won the La Turbie hillclimb and Hermann Braun set a new record time for the standing-start mile.
Unfortunately, all of these successes were overshadowed by the death of Count Eliot Zborowski at La Turbie at the wheel of his newly-delivered 60.
The first of the two great motor races of that year was the Paris to Madrid race – billed as the greatest city-to-city race, but destined to be remembered for other, darker, reasons.
Daimler prepared six of its cars for the race and fitted all of them with an even more powerful motor, the 90. But victory was to be denied the cars from Cannstatt. The catastrophic race was cut short at Bordeaux by French authorities; the highest placed Mercedes was the 60 of Warden, which placed sixth at the Bordeaux finish.
The other great race of 1903 was of course the Gordon Bennett race in Ireland. The 90s being prepared for this race were destroyed in a fire at the Cannstatt factory and the factory team had to borrow back examples of the 60 from their owners so that it could compete in the Irish race.
That race was won by Belgian driver, Camille Jenatzy, and ensured an honoured place for the Mercedes 60 in the history of motor racing.
Those fortunate enough to drive any of the surviving examples of the 60 confirm that it is easily – and by some margin – the most highly responsive and highest-performance veteran car of the period, fully deserving of its status as the world’s first supercar.