Mercedes and the 1914 Grand Prix – Part One
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Although Mercedes had won a Grand Prix in 1908, within six years racing technology had advanced by leaps and bounds. Daimler’s all-new cars for 1914 faced stern opposition
 
Article Karl Ludvigsen
Images Ludvigsen Archives, Mark Elias, Greg Burks
 
After its sensational victory in 1908’s French Grand Prix, Stuttgart’s Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft joined an industry-wide boycott of auto racing. In 1912 this began to crumble and by 1913, it was defunct. Automobile makers took to the tracks again. When it planned to resume racing in the 1913 season, DMG decided to participate on a semi-official basis: new cars were to be built and entered into competitions by the company’s Belgian importer, Theodore Pilette – not the company itself.
 

Spectators throng the Silver Arrows as they pose for the camera before the start of the 1914 Grand Prix, including the 41 BIS practice car, No. 28 of Christian Lautenschlager, No. 40 of Luis Wagner, No. 14 of Max Sailer, and No. 398 of Otto Salzer. Urgent repairs to a damaged transmission prevented Pilette's No. 41 from being in the picture.

However, when Pilette’s entries for the 1913 French Grand Prix were received by the Automobile Club de France, they were refused because they weren’t submitted by the manufacturer, as the rules required. The Automobile Club de la Sarthe, organizers of August’s Grand Prix at Le Mans, was less finicky about accepting Pilette’s team of four white Mercedes cars. Using old engines plus adapted aero engines, the cars were not a great success; the chain-driven DMG entries placed third, fourth, sixth and seventh.
 
Not until early September 1913 were the rules confirmed for the ACF’s 1914 Grand Prix. The revised rules stipulated that total car weight would be limited to a maximum of 1,100 kilograms (2,420 pounds), without liquids, tools and spare parts. They also set a limit on engine size of 4,500 cc – the first time a capacity limit was imposed in GP racing. This limit strongly favored such automakers as Sunbeam, Peugeot and Vauxhall, who had been active in Voiturette racing where 3.0-liter limits were in force.
 
The four-and-a-half-liter engine was a full liter less than any engine DMG had yet built for racing. Moreover, DMG executives suspected that the new rules were communicated to France’s automakers some four weeks before the rest of the world learned about them, giving those companies a home-country advantage.




 
Nevertheless, DMG decided to take part in the 1914 race. In a project led by the company’s board member for engineering, Paul Daimler, completely new cars were designed and built by the team at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.
Kommerzienrat Gustav Vischer, active since 1905 in support of DMG racing, was in charge of the company’s experimental department. He would oversee the construction of the cars and the pit management at the racing circuit near Lyon, France. In early January 1914, his son and engineer, Alfred Vischer, traveled to Lyon to conduct a reconnaissance of the road course. He took a surveyor’s theodolite to measure the various gradients.
 
On January 26, the younger Vischer completed his handwritten report, which was accompanied by sketches of key parts in the circuit and outlined recommendations for gear ratios. He concluded that although five speeds would be advantageous, four would be sufficient if they were properly chosen. Vischer recommended a high third gear, suggesting indirect ratios of 1.20:1 for third gear, 1.50:1 in second and 3.00:1 in first.     
 
Meanwhile a key decision for the drivetrain was made. Partly to please chain-drive proponent Pilette and because he felt chains would be lighter, Daimler argued that the new cars should have traditional chains instead of the shaft drive that had been pioneered in France and was now widely accepted in racing. Driver-engineer Otto Salzer countered with the example of the 1913 Peugeots, which successfully used light and compact shaft-driven axles. Daimler requested and received information on the total weight of the Mercedes chain-drive aggregate and the next day told Salzer, “We will build a shaft-drive car after all.”
 






With the design fixed on the model designated Type 18/100, work proceeded rapidly. The drawing of the chassis was signed off February 24 – the body was approved March 3. Logs of chassis and engine serial numbers indicate that seven chassis and eight engines were produced.
 
Daimler and his men realized that to stand a chance of success they would virtually have to double the operating speed range that their racing engines could use reliably. The new 4-cylinder engine to meet this challenge was designed by Daimler’s automotive staff, including design engineer Otto Schilling, and manufactured and tested by the aero-engine staff, which was better acquainted with the construction methods used. Preoccupation with the challenge of high engine speeds, to reach and exceed 3,500 rpm, showed in every detail of the design.
Key features of the engine included individual cylinders with steel water jackets welded around forged-steel cylinders. Each cylinder had an integral head carrying two inlet and two exhaust valves, operated by a single overhead camshaft driven by a vertical shaft at the rear of the engine. In the aluminum crankcase, the crankshaft was made of special Aquila steel supplied by the Austrian firm of Danner. Four bolts held each of the big ends of the H-section connecting rods, a novelty at DMG.




 
Triple spark plugs fired by twin magnetos gave the new engine ample ignition. A power curve taken on engine No. 1005, on a blend of gasoline and benzol, showed a peak of 105.5 horsepower at 3,100 rpm. At 2,000 rpm, its output was 81 horsepower with 209 pound-feet of torque. The car’s type designation, 18/100, signified taxable horsepower of 18 and maximum power of a nominal 100 brake horsepower.
 
“The sweetest music that I have ever heard was the song of this engine,” reminisced the hero of the 1908 Grand Prix, Christian Lautenschlager, “although at 3,500 the vibration was pure hell.” His “four,” he said, was the only one in the team to have such a strong vibration. Nevertheless, Lautenschlager and his teammates had every confidence in the unit because its testing included a run to destruction of a heavily shielded engine – it survived to more than 5,000 rpm before disintegrating.
 
Daimler’s 18/100 chassis was a mixture of old and new. Although front-wheel brakes were coming into use – four 1914 teams had them – the Mercedes cars did without. The clutch was a new double-cone design, while deeply veed radiators gave the cars an aggressive attitude as well as additional cooling area. In all, DMG assembled six cars for the Lyon race, five for the actual entries and the sixth as a spare. This was akin to the strategy of Peugeot, which built four cars for its three entries.
 
With companies allowed to enter up to five cars, DMG chose to make full use of that option. It was the only company to do so – no other competitor entered more than three cars. Nominated drivers were 1908 winner Lautenschlager, Pilette, Salzer, “Seiler” and “Nagel.” “Seiler” was young works engineer Max Sailer, in charge of the road-test department, while “Nagel” was an unspecified entrant. His place in the team would be taken by French ace Louis Wagner.
 
While their cars were being fabricated, drivers were given an opportunity to learn the demanding Lyon circuit. At the end of March near Eastertime, seven Type 16/45 Mercedes-Knight passenger chassis were equipped with sketchy sports bodies and made available for the drive to the circuit at Lyon, which was being used for a major race for the first time. Lautenschlager, Sailer, Salzer and Pilette made use of these to get familiar with the circuit.
 No evidence has been found that the actual Mercedes racing cars took part in April or May in these tests on the 23.4-mile Lyon circuit. Roughly triangular, it was closed to racing cars early in April. Up to that time, however, Peugeot, Delage, Alda, Opel and Fiat were all said to have tested their racing cars on the circuit.
Lautenschlager said that he drove the first 18/100 on the DMG works test track “at the end of April.” He did so with great trepidation behind an engine revving to twice the speed of any previous Mercedes, but was pleasantly surprised. Salzer said that by six weeks before the race, which would have been in the third week of May, three racing cars were ready for him and his two DMG colleagues to begin training drives.
 
Often taking place early in the morning so that DMG men could be at their workplaces during the day, these test drives were chiefly on roads outside Stuttgart. Favorite routes, Salzer said, were the run to Ulm, the Solitude circuit near the Black Forest, the climb up the Zollberg near Esslingen and the nearly straight route of more than 10 miles between Rastatt and Ettlingen. During these tests, Salzer detected a high-speed miss that he was able to demonstrate to his colleagues. This was overcome by the Eisemann company’s development of a new type of mica insulated plug with platinum points.
 
On June 20, the drivers and their riding mechanics drove the six cars 350 miles to France for the race; the DMG base was at Givors, the largest town along the circuit. Correspondent W. F. Bradley reported that the Mercedes cars were in a completely enclosed stone garage surrounded by an 8-foot brick wall. Guards were on constant duty both inside and outside the entrance. When cars were not in use, Bradley said their hoods were heavily chained and padlocked. Another observer found that “everything was orderly, almost military, and on a big scale.”

The starting order was determined by a drawing held by the ACF April 6. This placed Mercedes last of the 14 teams that were entered. The cars would be started in pairs in three waves, each wave in the order determined by the drawing. Thus, the first Mercedes to start was the last car in the final pair of the first 14-car wave, assigned No. 14 as a result. The second Mercedes to start was the last car in the final pair of the second wave, numbered 28 accordingly. The third to start was the last car in the final group, No. 39 instead of 42 because not all teams had a third car. Following that, the final two Mercedes started as a pair with Nos. 40 and 41.
 
The circuit was opened for practice between 3 and 5 in the mornings on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday the week before the race. The German and English teams were assigned Wednesday and Saturday for practice. Salzer and Lautenschlager took advantage, the latter finding to his satisfaction and relief that on the well-surfaced French roads, his 18/100 was capable of 112 mph against the 103 mph that seemed to be its limit in Germany.
 



Between Sunday, June 28, and the official weigh-in Friday, July 3, the Mercedes camp made its final preparations. Gear ratios were confirmed, with Lautenschlager taking the lead in specifying his preferences. The Mercedes team was one of several that juggled the running order of their entries. Sailer, who originally carried No. 39, would start as 14 instead. Salzer would  be No. 39 instead of 40, while Wagner was assigned No. 40 instead of 14. Pilette remained at 41, and Lautenschlager at 28.
 
The running order of the cars at the start also applied to their presentation at the weighing-in, which took place in the small square of the village of Brignais from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Three of the Mercedes appeared at 5 p.m. and the final three – including the spare – at 5:30 on a very damp day. Rain continued through the night and threatened for the following day. It ceased before the start, which began at 8 a.m. July 4.
 
Clear favorites for the race were French teams Peugeot and Delage, both riding high with recent successes. Peugeot in particular was looking good with its twin-camshaft engines, four-wheel braking and fabled team leader Georges Boillot. “He was truly magnificent,” said correspondent Sammy Davis, “able to give more than even he thought he had and able to keep up full speed when fatigued beyond the ordinary.”
 
Against them were the unheralded white Mercedes. “They have lines which a camera cannot portray,” one observer said. “A white marble model of one would be a priceless possession.” Others taking the start were Sunbeam, Nazzaro, Vauxhall, Alda, Fiat, Schneider, Aquila-Italiana, Nagant, Opel and Piccard-Pictet. Whoever won would have beaten the best Europe had to offer.
 
The story of Mercedes and the 1914 Grand Prix will be continued in the next issue of The Star.