Here we see a patent request dated October 7, 1970 for a very peculiar device…
Which we now know as the airbag. The list of innovations is astounding and I’ve discovered as a general rule of thumb that if you can think of a component, safety or otherwise, Mercedes likely brought it to market.
As proud as they may be of all those accomplishments they seem to hold one thing particularly close to their hearts, something that we Speedhunters can relate to – motorsport.
The final floor of the museum, by far and away the largest in the building, is dedicated solely to the history of Mercedes-Benz in motorsport. Unfortunately the display places the cars quite literally on a pedestal, so I couldn’t get as close as I would have liked to, but beggars can’t be choosers.
It seems that nearly as long as the company has been building cars they have been tweaking them into wilder competition versions.
It was pretty incredible seeing this timeline laid out in front of me in a literal sense.
At the sharper end of the pack were some fairly recently retired DTM machinery. I cannot count how many times I’ve piloted the CLK DTM in video games but it was another experience entirely meeting the beast face to face.
If there’s something to be learned from the advancement of technology and motorsport it’s that we are still only at the beginning. It seems like just yesterday when Mika Hakkinen was battling Michael Schumacher in this very F1 chassis, but by today’s standards it looks like an antique.
On the flip side, sometimes antiques become timeless. The C9 is a car that brings a smile to my face even on the worst of days.
As is the 190E. There’s just something about this absurd box-shaped racing device that tugs at my heart strings. The silhouette, the flares, the livery, the bottle cap wheels… it’s so ’80s. I can’t get enough of it.
Around the perimeter of the race cars is a series of glass enclosures containing racing engines. I cannot think of another company that is equally as famous for constructing cars as it is supplying engines for others.
I ended up making several passes, changing lenses each time. I hope that one day I might be so fortunate as to be able to spend some time with one of these priceless chassis in a studio or race track setting.
Don’t get me wrong, just being in the presence of these cars is worth the price of admission and all things considered, the layout is pretty photogenic. But the thought of a private shooting session is the stuff our dreams are made of.
Towards the end of my visit I began to reflect a bit about my experience, and that’s when the layout of the museum really began to make sense. There are two timelines unfolding simultaneously but they are interwoven by a constant theme – progress.
There is an opportunity here unlike anywhere else to examine and compare the entire history of a brand from humble beginnings to current production. In some cases the past and present are literally presented to you side by side. It’s rather ingenious really. As a kid you never ponder the amount of work that goes into making a museum relevant, let alone interesting.
I find it all too often that car museums miss the mark in one way or another, but not Mercedes. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised though given the effort the brand puts into everything they do, why wouldn’t they have a superb setting in which to share their esteemed history. If you’re ever in Stuttgart I highly recommend spending the 8 euro to get in, you can’t afford not to.
More stories by Sean Klingelhoefer on Speedhunters
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