Mercedes-Benz Sport-Light Coupe

The Complete Story

Nik Greene

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781785008238
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Automotive Transportation & Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In the very beginning, the automotive industry was dominated by open-top vehicles whose body shapes were very much based on the horse-drawn carriage, there were open and closed carriages and then there was the Coupe. These were developed from the type of carriage known as the Berlin coach, which was designed as a classic vehicle for individual luxury travel and prestige. This type of carriage offered an intimate atmosphere focused exclusively on the passengers; it did not even have space for luggage, it simply exuded style, elegance and luxury in every way. This first volume of the Mercedes-Benz Coupe book addresses the journey from what was a functional sports car design to what has become the incomparable Mercedes-Benz 'Sports Coupe'; its timeless body design has remained, even today both a dream car and a dream Coupe to anyone whom aspires to follow in the footsteps of the early individualists who chose style and elegance over practicality. With over 300 photographs and illustrations, this book includes: an overview of the early days of 'Sports-Car' design; the influences of aerodynamics on design evolution; early protagonists at Daimler-Benz and how they influenced design of the Coupe shape; how the Racing Coupe influenced what became the production Sport Coupe; the experimental and one-off prototypes, and finally the continuation of the Super Sport Light concept through the 'S-Class' range.

CHAPTER ONE

EARLY RACING HISTORY

The earliest motor races were contested over the ruler-straight routes nationales of France, and for good reason. First, the French received the emergence of the horseless carriage as a practical means of transport with more understanding and far fewer restrictions than those that plagued it elsewhere, particularly in England. Second, these early French pioneers were faced with the task of proving that carriages drawn by mechanical means could, in fact, represent an effective replacement to those behind horses or other suitable animals.

The automobile’s rise to ascendancy on the roads proved a slow and arduous process in which social, economic and political factors all played a role, and the primary intention of these early races was more about proving that these new-fangled vehicles could run with a modicum of reliability and safety. The general public at the time was already sceptical of what these auto cars – or automobiles, or motor cars, as they were variously called – were capable of achieving, so it was vital to prove that they were able to cover a reasonable amount of ground faster and more efficiently than animal-propelled carts and carriages.

Engineers and constructors alike also knew that this was an ideal way of pushing their technical abilities, and many improvements in the design and construction of the motor car itself were made in a very short time – but importantly too, these races became very well supported by those who saw a big commercial and financially beneficial future for the motor car. The connection between Daimler and Jellinek was made initially to build a car for one of these races. Daimler also supplied engines to Peugeot via Panhard-Levassor.

This Panhard-Levassor, with an engine power output of 3.5HP (2.6kW), came fourth out of twenty-one vehicles that started; fifteen finished, nine with Daimler engines.

The first automotive competition was held just eight years after the invention of the automobile by Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz. A reliability trial was organized for ‘horseless carriages’ on 22 July 1894 by the Parisian newspaper Le Petit Journal. A total of 102 vehicles applied to take part, including cars with petrol engines, steam and electric vehicles, hydromobiles, and vehicles with compressed air, gas or electropneumatic drive systems. The event organizers allowed twenty of these to take part.

After a distance of 126km (78 miles), the first to cross the finishing line was a De-Dion-Bouton steam-powered car, closely followed by two vehicles by Panhard-Levassor and the Peugeot brothers, both powered by engines built under the Daimler licence. These were eventually declared joint victors, since the steam car did not comply with the rules of the competition and was instead awarded second place. They were followed by five more cars equipped with petrol engines, including a Roger-Benz, a French automobile manufacturer called Emile Roger who sold Benz cars and used a Benz engine. Therefore Daimler’s lighter ‘universal petrol engine’ and the Benz petrol engine had proved themselves in public as drive systems that must now be taken seriously.

The world’s first ‘proper’ automobile race took place a year later in 1895 on a route from Paris–Bordeaux–Paris. Once again, after 1,192km (740 miles) of racing, the winner’s name was Panhard-Levassor. Further proof of the reliability of the petrol engine was the fact that six of the first eight finishers were cars equipped with Panhard-Levassor engines built under the Daimler licence, and two Benz vehicles. Then in 1896 three cars with Daimler engines achieved a triple victory at the Paris–Marseille–Paris event, completing the 1,728km (1,074 miles) at an average speed of 25.2km/h (15.7mph).

The Nice–Magagnon–Nice race on 21 March 1899. Hermann Braun wins the touring race in a 24HP two-seater Daimler Phoenix racing car.

What Daimler and Maybach soon realized was that these Panhard-Levassor vehicles were so reliable because instead of placing the engine at the rear, like they had done, Panhard had placed the engine and radiator system at the front but with a rear-wheel-drive system. Maybach and Daimler responded almost immediately with the ‘Daimler Vis-à-Vis’. The 6HP, 2-cylinder Phoenix engine was transposed to the front for the first time along with Maybach’s newly patented radiator design. It consisted of many small tubes exposed to the air flow, which were continually flushed by coolant.

Vis-à-Vis 1897 6HP.

Compared with the earlier coiled-tube radiators and fly-wheel cooling, much more air was able to flow through the radiator area, which in turn permitted the water reservoir to be substantially reduced in size, thus reducing weight. This innovative design, without which development of the high-performance automobile would have been inconceivable, represented an important milestone in automobile development. However, Maybach never rested on his laurels, and on 8 August 1901 he filed for the protection of the so-called ‘honeycomb radiator’ – patent number ‘DRP 122 766’. This new type of radiator was described as a ‘cooling and condensation device based on the cross-flow principle’; although based on the original tubular radiator it had a much improved cooling capacity, and was space adaptable.

The honeycomb radiator was launched on 20 September 1900 (patent no. DRP 122766). The ‘three-pointed star’ can be clearly seen.

It was the 24HP Cannstatt-Daimler racer of 1901 that first used this radiator, and more importantly, it was organically integrated into the front body style; in this it was the final break away from the design concept of the first automobiles, which had been modelled on the coach design. This innovative design constituted a significant milestone in automotive development, in that at the time it fulfilled an important cooling capability requirement for vehicle engine design with increasingly higher power outputs.

The Daimler Rennwagen began to define automobile shape, including the placement of the radiator.

Almost every car from that moment forward featured a similar radiator design, but never for one second did anyone see anything other than the ability to keep the engine at a bearable working temperature. It was certainly not seen by car manufacturers as a way of personalizing their brand, at least until DMG introduced the V-shaped grille. As engines got bigger and more powerful they needed bigger radiators, but with this came the realization that smaller, smoother, more integrated, rounded bodies were more aerodynamic. Technically the ‘V’ shape was purely intended to add around 30 per cent more surface area to the movement of air around the radiator.

The V shape to the grille served better aerodynamics as well as a more efficient cooling surface area.

Both Daimler and Benz engineers, independently of one another, found with their experiments that air flow was not the ‘be all and end all’ of cooling efficiency. When air is moving too fast, you get into boundary layer issues where heat doesn’t get carried away because air isn’t actually touching fins and tubes; it was necessary to actually restrict the air flow sufficiently so it would ‘touch the sides’ as it flowed through.

Maybach answered this by fitting a decorative grille in front of the actual core of the radiator for all racing cars with the V grille. This extended into production road automobiles too.

BENZ & CIE

Carl Benz could work up little enthusiasm for motorsports events;...