If you are fortunate enough to own one of the 1,858 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadsters built between 1957 and 1963 (with 1,458 known to still exist as of the mid-1990s), you understand what an extraordinary machine it is, especially for its time. And if…
Sometimes the right idea happens at just the right time. As we prepared the May-June issue of The Star, my son suggested that we enter the Gambler 500 this year. If you haven’t heard of this event, it’s a two-day non-competitive off-road trek. The…
There is nothing like that feeling of the first spring day when it’s warm enough to put the top down on the car and take a drive. Sometimes it’s not even spring yet. This year it was March 5, and it was 72 degrees in Fort Wayne, so of course I took…
The other day, as I was working on a 1985 300CD, I began to wonder if an in-depth article about the Mercedes-Benz 1985-only diesel vacuum system had ever appeared in The Star. After looking through my library, I found very little information about…
Beginning in 1997, Mercedes-Benz redefined the luxury car segment by introducing the M-Class; a new midsize luxury SUV that would appeal to the masses. The ML was initially conceived as a replacement for the antiquated G-Wagen, which had been…
The 1935 Grand Prix season was excellent; the best against strong and varied opposition that Mercedes-Benz enjoyed in the second year of the new 750-kilogram G.P. formula. In its second season the W25 was fully proven and raced as part of a team…
Our 2020 travel plans were dashed by COVID. However, with improving conditions and the introduction of the Green Pass in the EU, we saw a window of opportunity to take part of that delayed vacation without being subjected to unreasonable…
Alfred Peyton Jenkins – my father – was born on May 11, 1900 in Richmond, Virginia, just fifteen years after Karl Benz created the Benz Patent Motorwagen. Pete, as he was called by his friends, was the youngest of five children of a highly…
Even as a child, I knew there was something very special about Mercedes-Benz cars. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of cars on American roads were from the Detroit automakers, and they weren’t exactly doing their best work during the…
Even as a child, I knew there was something very special about Mercedes-Benz cars. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of cars on American roads were from the Detroit automakers, and they weren’t exactly doing their best work during the…