Following Gottlieb Daimler's death in March 1900, his assistant
Wilhelm Maybach, produced a radically different car.
Gone was any resemblance to a horse-drawn carriage and the design had many
features of the modern motor car.
A low-slung, pressed-steel chassis replaced the usual wooden frame. The gear-change
operated in an H-shaped gate.
There was a honeycomb radiator instead of the usual pipe bent into a stack
and fitted with cooling fins.
The 18/80 seen here was a production car based on the same design principles. A number of these cars ran in stripped form at Brooklands in the early years following its opening.
Mercedes 18/80 Specification
Engine: 4-cylinder overhead inlet and side exhaust valve.
Gearbox: 4-speed. Chassis:
pressed steel with suspension front and rear by rigid axle suspended on
semi-elliptic leaf springs.
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