Benz 200 hp "Lightning Benz" record car, 1909 - 1913
The French Benz works driver Victor Hémery was not only fixated on winning glory at all kinds of racing events, he was also fascinated by the idea of exceeding the magical 200 km/h limit with a car designed according to his ideas and thus achieving a higher speed than aeroplanes and railways were capable of at the time.
At the beginning of 1909, Hémery, Benz designer Louis de Groulart and his assistant Hans Nibel set about the task of turning this dream into reality. The successful 150 hp Benz Grand Prix racing car from the previous year served as the basis for the record-breaking car. However, its four-cylinder engine with its current power output would not be sufficient to achieve the envisaged target. The racing engine was therefore given a thorough overhaul. Since the main way of increasing the engine power at that time was by adding displacement, the bore was increased by around 30 mm to 185 mm while retaining the stroke dimension of 200 mm.
To make this possible at all on the basis of the existing cylinder block, a number of design tricks were necessary. The considerably larger oscillating masses of the engine, which now had a displacement of 21.5 litres, also had to be taken into account. The cylinders, which were still cast together in pairs but now reinforced below the cooling jackets with moulded-on longitudinal ribs, were bolted to the crankcase with 12 stud bolts each, and the previous triple-bearing crankshaft gave way to one with five main bearings due to the higher loads.
The engine was, and remains, the largest-displacement passenger car engine ever used in the history of Mercedes-Benz AG and its predecessor companies. With an increased compression ratio of 5.8, the gigantic 407 kg engine initially produced 184 hp/135 kW at 1500 rpm, an output that would soon be increased to 200 hp/147 kW at 1600 rpm through appropriate fine-tuning.
After the first example of the mighty four-cylinder engine had been completed in the summer of 1909, it was implanted in a racing car chassis and initially trialled in the vicinity of the Mannheim factory. At its first race, the renowned Semmering hill climb near Vienna over 10 kilometres and 400 metres in altitude, the displacement giant was unable to reach its full potential due to the course and, with Fritz Erle at the wheel, was beaten by the 150 hp Mercedes of Otto Salzer and Willy Pöge.
A first indication of the car's potential was the 115.4 km/h that Victor Hémery achieved over the standing kilometre in a sprint race held in Brussels in mid-October - that was quite simply a new world record. However, this was no reason for the Frenchman to rest on his laurels: at the beginning of November 1909, he also set new world records on the Brooklands track near Weybridge/England, which had been newly opened in 1907, with speeds of 205.7 km/h over the half-mile with a flying start and 202.6 km/h over the kilometre, also with a flying start.
For the first time, the high-performance car appeared with a very narrow streamlined body, which was soon to become the distinguishing feature of the Benz 200 hp. Some sources cite the kilometre race in Frankfurt/Main in August 1909 as the car's first competitive outing, but this is not consistent with authentic contemporary sources. The car with the characteristic body shape used in Frankfurt was not yet equipped with the 21.5-litre engine, but had the 15.1-litre four-cylinder engine of the 150 hp racing car - a circumstance that also harmonises better with the speed of 159.3 km/h achieved over the flying kilometre. The streamlined body, which - equipped with the 200 hp engine - was also used at Brooklands, was cut so narrowly in favour of the lowest possible air resistance that the driver and accompanying mechanic could only sit next to each other with difficulty. Characteristic of the record-breaking car's appearance and the aerodynamic detail work carried out even in those early days were the water box of the narrow radiator, which resembled a bird's beak, the pointed rear end, the panelling of the front axle and the front crossmember of the frame, and the wooden-spoked wheels with enclosed covers.
Due to a lack of suitable circuits in Europe, Benz & Cie. saw the future of the record-breaking car in the USA. So it was only logical that car number 1 found a buyer from the other side of the Atlantic. The US motorsport promoter Ernie Moross traded in the Benz 150 hp Grand Prix racing car he owned to the Benz importer Froehlich, paid an additional 6000 dollars and purchased the record-breaking car, which was shipped in January 1910. When it arrived in the USA, Moross immediately christened it the "Lightning Benz" - a name that would go down in automotive history.
Barney Oldfield, one of the best and most renowned racing drivers in the USA, brought Moross's "Lightning Benz" to the starting line for the first time at the record week organised in Daytona/Florida in mid-March. There he pushed the world speed record over the flying mile to 211.4 km/h. Oldfield subsequently contested a few races in Mexico with the "Lightning Benz", before it returned to Moross in urgent need of an overhaul. He had the car repaired and prepared for the 1911 season for a newly signed driver, the also highly renowned Bob Burman.
In record attempts at the end of April 1911 in Daytona Beach, Burman achieved something with the freshly overhauled vehicle, which in the meantime had been given the German-sounding name "Blitzen-Benz", that would hold for quite a number of years: he improved the world record for the mile with a flying start to a sensational new figure of 228.1 km/h. Only years later did it become possible to surpass this achievement. In his Packard "Liberty Racer", Ralph DePalma reached 241 and 242 km/h for the mile and the kilometre with a flying start on the sandy beach of Daytona Beach in the spring of 1919. The record was not recognised due to the two-way rule introduced in 1911, which required the average of two trips in opposite directions to determine the record speed. World records beyond that set by the "Blitzen-Benz", which complied with the two-way rule, were not achieved until July and September 1924 - first at 234.8 and 235.0 km/h respectively by the Englishman Ernest Eldridge on a country road north of Paris, and finally at 235.2 km/h by Malcolm Campbell at Pendine Sands in Wales.
The original "Blitzen-Benz" subsequently changed hands several times before finally returning to Europe, where it took part moderately successfully in several races at Brooklands in the 1922 season with Count Louis Zborowski before being cannibalised in 1923.
Benz & Cie. had already built the second example of the 200 hp car in 1910. However, a conventionally designed body with a wide radiator in the style of the Benz Grand Prix racing car was placed on the largely unchanged racing car chassis. This vehicle made its racing debut in October 1910 at the Gaillon hill climb in Normandy. Fritz Erle set a new track record of 156.5 km/h for the flying kilometre.
In the winter of 1910/1911, this car was also given an extremely slim, but this time unusually smooth streamlined body, modelled on the first example. One of the reasons for this measure was apparently the desire to market appropriately the speed records set in the USA - at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1911 and at the International Motor Show in Berlin in October of that year. In between, the car was again fitted with a wide radiator and a Grand Prix body - the latter in a revised version with a raised side panel that offered the driver and front passenger more protection. Benz works racing driver Franz Heim won the Ries hill climb near Graz in this configuration. In 1912, this car was also sold to the USA and labelled "Blitzen Benz No. 2". Starting with the mile race in Laurel, Maryland, the vehicle took part in around a dozen racing events in the summer of 1912, in which it was driven by the up-and-coming racing driver Eddie Rickenbacher. In August 1914, the "Blitzen Benz No. 2" made motorsport history by being the first vehicle ever to complete record attempts on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the US state of Utah. With Teddy Tetzlaff at the wheel, it is said to have reached speeds of up to 250 km/h in the test runs - in any case, 229.85 km/h in the timed half-mile runs are proven beyond doubt. The further fate of this car is largely unknown.
The third Benz 200 hp was built in 1912 and made its racing debut - just like the second car exactly two years earlier - at the Gaillon hill climb at the beginning of October. Equipped with the sleek streamlined body and with Fritz Erle at the wheel, the Benz set a new track record of 163.6 km/h. In May 1913, Erle also succeeded in setting a new track record of 110.2 km/h at the Limonest hill climb near Lyon. The car had previously been given a Grand Prix body with a wide radiator. Six months after this success, Benz & Cie. sent the car to Great Britain. The well-known British racing driver L. G. Hornsted, who had achieved great success with the Benz 150 hp Grand Prix racing car, particularly on the treacherous high-speed track at Brooklands, and was now setting out to chase records with the Benz 200 hp, had proposed a number of technical changes. In addition to internal engine modifications such as the use of conical-seat valves instead of ring valves on the intake side and reinforced piston crowns to support the piston-pin boss, he also made changes to the frame and the external appearance of the 200 hp racing car. The longitudinal members were further stiffened at the front by a tubular crossmember, the exhaust system was modified and the seating position for the occupants was changed so that they could now sit comfortably side by side. The wide radiator in the Grand Prix version was given a streamlined, rounded air intake, and the Grand Prix body tapered to the characteristic pointed rear, as in the first two vehicles. The dawn of a new era was marked by the Rudge-Whitworth wire-spoke wheels with centre locks, which replaced the previous wooden and wire-spoke wheels.
Between December 1913 and January 1914, Hornsted set a total of nine new speed records with this car, travelling the distances between half a mile and ten miles in both directions for the first time. It achieved the highest outward and return journey average over the half-mile with a flying start, where the dark blue, almost black-looking car reached 199.3 km/h. Five months later, in June 1914, Hornsted again set a record over the mile with a flying start. The 199.7 km/h achieved also meant a new track record for Brooklands.
In July 1914, shortly before the start of the First World War, the Briton achieved the best time for the racing cars over the flying kilometre and over 20 kilometres, also with a flying start, at Ostend Week, reaching speeds of 189.5 km/h and 144.7 km/h respectively. After this success, the car was returned to Mannheim, where it did in fact survive the war. As part of the resumption of motorsport activities in 1921, the Benz 200 hp was completely overhauled. The engine was fitted with aluminium pistons and an exhaust pipe running straight to the rear, and the car was given back its original body based on the example of the first two vehicles. The wire wheels retained their quick-release fasteners, but were covered by discs for aerodynamic reasons.
The revised car had its first outing in a record-breaking run as part of the AVUS opening race in September 1921. Franz Hörner set a new record of 185 km/h over 3 kilometres. In May 1922, the third Benz 200 hp was launched again: at the international kilometre race in Scheveningen, Hörner drove the flying kilometre at 107 km/h, but remained well below expectations and below the performance of Dutch Mercedes importer Theo Wiemann, who achieved 165.1 km/h over the same distance in a Mercedes 28/95 hp. In July, the car was sent to England - as it had been nine years earlier - and raced there at Brooklands with moderate success until September 1922, when it was badly damaged in an accident. The wreck was brought back to Mannheim and cannibalised there.
Shortly after the third Benz 200 hp, a fourth vehicle was built in Mannheim in the spring of 1913, which made its racing debut at the end of May 1913 in the 'versta' race at St Petersburg. Over the distance of 1 versta - this unit of length used in the Tsarist Empire until 1917 corresponded to 1.0668 kilometres - Franz Hörner reached a speed of 202 km/h, setting a new European road record. Two months later, Hörner competed in the kilometre race in Vercelli in north-west Italy with the Benz and covered the flying kilometre at 191.5 km/h. This was followed in May and June 1914 by two more races in hill climbs near Prague and Barcelona. At the Zbraslav - Jíloviště hill climb, Hörner set a new record of 96.5 km/h, and in the race for the Tibidado trophy, he achieved the best time of all the racing cars with 68.1 km/h. All these races were driven in the fourth Benz 200 hp with the classic Grand Prix bodywork and wooden-spoke wheels.
After the interruption caused by the First World War, the car was reactivated in 1922 and, again with Franz Hörner at the wheel, successfully took part in the Semmering hill climb at the end of September, where it set the best time of the day. Two weeks later, he still managed to finish second in the racing car class at the Schwabenberg race near Budapest. In Bussum in the Netherlands in July 1923, Hörner was able to make up for the previous year and triumphed over Theo Wiemann in a Mercedes 28/95 hp in the class for racing cars over 6.5 litres. Although this ended the active motorsport career of the Benz 200 hp, the car was subsequently used to communicate the history and successes of Mercedes-Benz. In April 1933, it formed part of the motorcade to mark the inauguration of the Carl Benz memorial in Mannheim, with Erle at the wheel.
After record-breaking races had become topical again in 1934, the fourth Benz 200 hp was redesigned and given a new body modelled on the record-breaking car instead of its previous Grand Prix configuration. The narrow radiator required for this, along with certain body parts, were taken from the remains of the third car that had crashed at Brooklands. In February 1935, the rebuilt vehicle was presented to the general public at the "40 Years of Automobile Racing" exhibition, which took place in the Mercedes-Benz Pavilion at the International Automobile and Motorcycle Exhibition in Berlin. The vehicle was later painted silver, but was returned to its original white paintwork in 1976 and has been on display in this colour scheme at the Mercedes-Benz Museum since 1985.
In addition to the four vehicles mentioned above, all of which were successful in motorsport, Benz also built two further examples of the 200 hp model for customers. One of these was delivered to Barcelona in February 1913 via the Benz agency in Madrid, although details about the bodywork and the further life of the vehicle are unfortunately not known. The other went to Brussels in December 1913 as a chassis with extended wheelbase, where it was fitted with a four-seater touring car body by the by the Belgian coachbuilder D. & E. Snutsel . After the First World War, it found its way to Great Britain, where it took part in various competitions at Brooklands from 1920 and was later used on other racetracks after several changes of ownership on the British enthusiast scene. It has been based in the USA since 2002 as part of a collection of historic racing cars.