subject: The Mercedes Carrier: From 1954 To 2000 [print this page] Only such minds as those at Mercedes Benz could come up with an idea like this, and also see it to its deserving end. Develop a transporter to convey a racing car to different events in Europe, and make it in to the best transporter the world has ever laid their eyes on. But why did the company put in such huge chunks of money in designing and constructing a carrier that was obviously non-commercial? Why did they just not use a carrier that was already there?
The story behind the transporter's creation is a blending of pride, passion and practicality. There was extreme rivalry going on between Mercedes Benz and the other German racing teams in the days preceding the First World War.
But Mercedes? W-154 power-driven by the V-12 won 12 of the 17 events before the war and claimed the number one position out and out. It wasn't until 1952 that Mercedes Benz management made the decision to return to Grand Prix racing, beginning with the 1954 season.
To announce its return, Benz chose to design a special haulier that will carry its all-new W-196 racer, a racing model that had a famous Argentinean racer as its pilot. The transporter was to be one of its kind, and also it had to be easily recognizable to be a product of the company itself. It also had to be faster than all similar sized rigs as well as most of the cars that plied the highways of Western Europe.
If you are one of the initial teams to reach the tracks you automatically got more time to train and plan out your strategies. It also gave you ample time to send a damaged car to the plant for repairing and get it back to the tracks well ahead of time. From a technical viewpoint, the carrier had the best of what Mercedes could rally.
The 300 S sedan's X-shaped frame was the inspiration behind the transporter's own frame, but the 3.0 liter, 6-cylinder engine, and the four speed manual transmission was that of the 300 SL sports cars with gull wings. Power assisted hydraulic drum brakes were fitted at all four wheels.
But the most amazing part was the body work on the transporter. Most of the steel panels used were either founded on, or modified forms of, panels that were popular at the time. Also, the majority of the interior finishing was improved versions of the ones in the 180 S, as were the doors and the windshield.
Between its two fenders, the one up front and the one in the rear, there was enough space for two spare tires, loading ramps, tools and all the equipment for the racer.
The single cab was kept unconventionally up front ? way too much ahead of the front axle ? and the cab itself was placed seemingly too low, but the look that was obtained in the end was definitely Mercedes Benz. The factory blue in the end simply added to the instant success that was in store for it. The truck could manage speeds beyond 100 mph even with a full load weight of 6,600 pounds ? something considered to be fast today as well.
Hitting the roads sometime in mid-1954, the transporter was an instantaneous hit at the race tracks of Europe, and the U.S.as well.
In reality, the carrier was mostly more surrounded by fans than the racing cars that it was supposed to transport. As a upshot of the misfortune at the 1955 French 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, in which a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR, which was being raced privately, crashed and put to death 80 people, Mercedes Benz retracted from racing completely. Till the autumn of the same year, all of the racing division had been retired ? including the transporter.
The vehicle was actually so weighty that the company even had to give up the plan of preserving it in their museum as the floors would not have been able to take its weight. After receiving numerous letters and appeals, Mercedes Benz chose to start work on a replica of it in 1993.
Photographs, plans, and an outside fabricator were the tools used by the company to make it and it was complete in 2000. This meant that the transporter is now immortalised in the history of Mercedes Benz racing for all those who want to see it.
