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Mercedes one of the leading
manufacturers of cars in Germany.
 Daimler-Benz was formed in 1883, with Karl Benz, Max Rose and Friedrich Wilhelm Esslinger.
The first motorcars were built in 1886. The Benz prototype motorcar was first publicly seen in the summer of the same year.
At the same time, Daimler was busy with his first motorcar. In 1890, Daimler founded the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft group
(DMG) in Stuttgart.
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The USAs first practical
internal combustion engine was produced in Connecticut, and was designed with the plans produced by Daimler. In 1924 Daimler
and Benz merged companies and became known as Mercedes-Benz.
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Jellinek the Austro-Hungarian
consul in France had the rights to sell Daimlers cars in Europe and the USA. Mercedes was the name used by Jellinek to sell
Daimlers cars, and was in fact the name of his daughter.
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Mercedes quickly
moved on to become one of the premier manufactures of motor vehicles in the world.
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| The Mercedes Benz
300SL of the 1950s was one of the fastest road cars available. Only Ferrari and Maserati could get near the performance of
this sensational motorcar. |
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The famous Gullwing launched in 1954 was not only famous for its doors but also leading the way in fuel injection road cars.
The car was roughly twice the price of the Jaguar XK140, so a car only for the very rich. Being rich however, did have its
pitfalls, if you were in an accident and the car turned over you couldnt get out. It was a car with handling problems, a car
really for expert drivers only.
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The original Gullwing
coupe, with its incomparable roof-hinged doors, was launched in 1954, however, the Le mans winning prototypes had already
been seen in 1952.
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In 1962 Mercedes
set out to build the ultimate saloon car. Paying little attention to costs, with electric or hydraulic everything. The Mercedes-Benz
600 was launched in 1963. Rolls-Royce had found a match. The car was hugely expensive and was only produced in small numbers;
nevertheless it stayed on the Mercedes-Benz production list until 1981.
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The Mercedes-Benz
600 was enormous, the standard version was 18 ft ( 5.5 metres ) long. The 6.3 litre V-8 managed to move this car to over 120
mph (190 kph) Between 1963 and 1981 only 2700 Mercedes-Benz 600s were sold and mainly to heads of state!
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In 1997 Mercedes-Benz
unleashed the CLK-GTR - Welcome to the 200 mph club! This car was intended to shed Mercedes rather staid image, perhaps an
unfair description for such a refined marque, but such remarks tend to stick. The car is aimed at the younger generation obviously,
but at $750 000 + ? Who can afford one?
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CLK-GTR 6.9 litre
V-12 558 bhp - 206 mph - 0-60 3.8 seconds
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