Mercedes-Benz quicksilver century - Karl E Ludvigsen

This is a history of Mercedes-Benz and its involvement in motor racing. It takes the reader inside the boardrooms, experimental shops and test tracks, telling the stories of racing exploits.;Benz of Mannheim and Daimler's Mercedes of Stuttgart first battled each other as bitter rivals on the Grand Prix tracks of Europe. The great "Blitzen Benz" became the world's fastest vehicle. Mercedes was a Grand Prix winner in 1908 and again in 1914, winning the Indy 500 as well in 1915.;Individually they were names to reckon with and when they joined forces in 1926 as Daimler-Benz, they became awesome competitors. With its "Silver Arrows", Mercedes-Benz humbled its Grand Prix rivals in the 1930s and early 1950s. It won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1952 and 1989.;The book also covers the characters who built and raced the cars: Emil Jellinek, who named the Mercedes car after his daughter; the innovative engineer Wilhem Maybach; Alfred Neubauer, who kept the company's sporting spirit alive; Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the engineer who could drive as fast as the finest racers; and the drivers - Lautenschlager, Werner, de Palma, Oldfield, Burman, Caracciola, Stuck, Lang, von Brauchitsch, Seaman, Moss, Fangio, Kling, Herrmann, Fitch, Mikkola, Waldegaard, Ludwig, Thackwell, Wendlinger, Schumacher, Unser and Fittipaldi.;The many great Benz, Mercedes and Mercedes-Benz cars are described in full. Each is explained as a creature of its time, placed in a historical frame of reference. Among the most exotic are the streamlined rear-engined Benz Tropfen-Wagen, the six-wheeled T80 Land Speed record contender, the V-12 that set a record of 268 mph on an ordinary highway in 1938, and the 500I pushrod V-8 that staggered its rivals by racing and winning at Indy in 1994.;Winner of the 1995 Society of Automotive Historians Nicholas Joseph Cugnot Award, this book details how Mercedes-Benz has launched bold new racing initiatives in Formula 1 (with MacLaren), in IndyCar racing (with Penske) and in top-class European touring-car competitions with its own C-Class racer.