Ad of the week: Mercedes-Benz racing engineers

This weeks ad tries to link the mainstream 60s models from Mercedes Benz to the racing programmes of the 50s.   It is actually not that far fetched as the overhead cam motor in the W108 250SE pictured did have fuel injection and there would have been lessons learned from the racing programme.   The ad would have been referring to engineers like Rudolf Uhlenhaut.   Ulenhaut was integral to the racing programme and later used a 300SLR Coupe as a company car.

What have all those Mercedes-Benz racing engineers been doing since Mercedes-Benz got out of racing?

When Mercedes-Benz brought its racing program to a close in 1955, the Racing Car Department section at Stuttgart-Untertukheim kept right on working.

Only the sign on the door was changed. The company had proved its point by winning two world titles in two successive seasons. So Racing Car Development rejoined Passenger Car Development. The same engineering brains that had devised the invincible W-196 and 300SLR returned to devising automobiles for everyday use.

That competition experience helped. Instead of vanishing into some dark back room, many prime features from racing machines – from fuel injection to overhead camshafts to rear swing-axle suspensions – soon turned up in production models, suitably modified, as standard equipment.

The engineers continued to insist on racing tolerances for many vital components once the cars reached production. (For example, engine bearings are still machined down to four 10,000ths of an inch.)

And when the rolled off the line, the testing section insisted on judging the handling and braking and high-speed stability of family sedans by the same harsh standards they had used to judge racing cars.

The end result of all this engineering skill is a series of automobiles every bit as invincible in their sphere as the racings were in theirs. Cars built to be efficient, without frivolity or fat.

Drive a Mercedes-Benz soon. It’s the best and the quickest way to find what those Mercedes-Benz racing engineers have been doing since Mercedes-Benz got out of racing. You’ll find they’ve been doing quite a lot.

Many of the legendary racing machines that have won more than 4,400 victories for Mercedes-Benz now stand in the Daimler-Benz Museum in Stuttgart-Unterturkheim, West Germany. Many of the features they pioneered can now be found on Mercedes-Benz passenger cars.