Throughout the long and storied history of the automotive industry, many great car manufacturers have come and gone. These range from companies such as Lancia, Saab, to name just a couple. But many have stayed with us for generations. Legendary names such as Ferrari, BMW, Audi, Aston Martin, Ford, and Chevrolet to name a few of them. One other company that has had quite an interesting past is Mercedes-Benz, which over the years have built some incredible cars, many of which can now be found on display at the highly impressive Mercedes-Benz Museum.
The Mercedes-Benz Museum is located in Stuttgart, Germany, in the same town as their main center of operations is located. Unsurprisingly, there is a huge and wide-ranging collection of exhibits in the museum, with some incredible cars from the company’s past on show and perhaps the only place some of them can be seen in public. The museum is quite frankly the best automotive gallery in the world, offering so much to the visitor. Just like everything they do in the world, Mercedes-Benz certainly goes big when it comes to showcasing their past, present, and even future.
The Silver Arrow Presentation
An important part of Mercedes history and its current-day operations is its presence in Formula 1. After being absent from the sport for more than 50 years, Mercedes returned to Formula 1 in 2010, and whilst it took some time for success to come to them, they ultimately won their first race since their comeback in 2012 and then the first world title came in 2014, with the team winning the constructors championship and driver Lewis Hamilton taking his second world drivers title, his first since 2008 when he won it in a Mercedes powered McLaren.
Since then, Mercedes have gone on to dominate the sport. The team has won every driver and constructor's title of the hybrid era so far, with Hamilton winning a further five titles so far and rival Nico Rosberg winning one in 2016. Despite the Covid-19 impacted 2020 season, Mercedes still came out on top with another double title success. This year though sees them face a renewed threat from Red Bull, so they have a fight on their hands to make it an eight double title win on the spin. They have already made history with their seven in a row, something no other team in history has been able to do.
The Gullwing Majesty
Unsurprisingly, something that a lot of museum visitors will be keen to see is the impressive Gullwing cars, specifically those from the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” family. These are displayed in the “Post War Miracle” section of the museum, and the 300SL Gullwing Coupe is one of the most beautiful-looking cars ever created. It was effectively commissioned by Max Hoffman, an Austrian-born New York based importer of luxury European cars. It had a highly successful racing season in 1952, showing exactly what an epic car the 300SL Coupe Gullwing was.
The 300SL Gullwing eventually morphed into the 300SL Roadster, a car with conventional doors that provided the elegance of its older Gullwing sibling, but the ease of access of a conventional car. When it was launched in 1957, it had the same 6-cylinder engine, with direct fuel injection, as the coupe and the examples of both the Gullwing and Roadster on show in the Mercedes Museum really are things of beauty and works of art. It's quite possible that these are two of the most beautiful cars ever created in the long history of Mercedes-Benz. Gullwings are now some of the most desirable cars in the world.
Looking To The Future
Running until the end of 2021, Mercedes is running a very special exhibit at the museum. This is the “Future Mobility” exhibit, which highlights how quickly mobility is currently changing, for all of us. There is all manner of interesting cars and tech on display, cars such as the Mission future: Vision EQ Silver Arrow, based upon the record-breaking Silver Arrows of the 1930s. There is also the mobility concept Vision Urabentic, aimed at meeting the future desires of cities and businesses, plus residents of those cities and other travelers. The Mercedes-Benz ESF, a car the company hopes will be the future of safety, is also on display in the "Future Mobility" exhibit.
Certainly Worth A Visit
The current global travel situation surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly not made it easy to travel abroad and go and visit new and exciting places. But when the world returns to some more normal form, the Mercedes-Benz Museum is 100% worth your time. There is so much on display in the museum that means you will find yourself in awe no matter which exhibition hall you find yourself walking into. Mercedes have done their very best to put as much of their history on show for us all, and they have done an absolutely remarkable job showing us the very best of Mercedes-Benz.
Sources: Daimler, Mercedes-Benz, Twitter