Mercedes Benz Museum - Part IV

I couldn't resist one last picture from my visit to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. At the end of the tour they focus on race cars and there is one particular exhibit where they have about 25 cars lined up around a room almost as if they were racing each other. All but one is either white or silver. The lone ranger in the group was painted red.


In the early days of racing each country had it's own colour as a courtesy to the fans. It was not required but simply a way to let the fans know who was in which vehicle. Germany was white, Italy was red, France used blue etc. The problem Daimler had was that his vehicles were always winning the race and when in other countries the fans would get upset and throw logs and things onto the track to disrupt the driver and to give their home town favourite a chance to win. Daimler got quite upset with this, especially with the Italians who were the worse offenders, so after the test run he took his vehicle back to the garage and had it painted red overnight. The fans didn't know any better and he won the race. A clever Swabian at work.


Also clever was the use of silver. Paint is heavy so Daimler started to just use polished steel ( thus silver ) to allow him to add some more technology on his vehicles and still meet weight restrictions.


Life is good ... enjoy


Auto Guru in Europe