Hidden Garages of Mercedes Benz - The First Car

" The famous 3-pointed star. It's everywhere in Stuttgart except for 1 secret location, off-limits to the public. Inside these doors are the hidden garages of Mercedes Benz. On June 4, 1886, a German newspaper reporter writes of a remarkable invention by Karl Benz. The article calls it a motorized velocipede. The world's first car is a reality before anyone invents the word automobile."

" Must have been sort of a revolution because up to that time, when people traveled, they only traveled in carriages taken by horses, and suddenly something comes around the corner, creating a lot of noise, driving on its own. Must have been quite tremendous sensation to have a view on that thing."

" It's the world's first car because it's the first time anyone integrates an engine, chassis, and transmission to all work together as a single unit."

" Karl Benz set a vision to build a car not an engine, not put an engine into a carriage, and the result was the so called 3-wheeler, the first real car in the world."

" It uses 3 wheels because the steering wheel hasn't been invented yet, and Karl Benz, an avid bicycle rider uses everything he knows about bikes to build his car."

" Benz was very car-minded. He was a car man, and his interest was to build a vehicle which is much more comfortable and quicker than a bicycle. He comes from the bicycle side. The steering at that time was a technical problem which Karl Benz was unable to solve at the beginning. That's why he built a 3-wheeler, which made steering easier than with having 2 wheels in the front. He solved that problem a little bit later on in 1893."

" But even on the 3-wheeler, the basics of a modern car are already there, an engine, crankshaft with counterweights, electric ignition, water cooling, and a carburetor although on the first car, it does double duty as fuel tank. The world's first car is surprisingly fuel-efficient. The 3-wheeler averages 23 miles per gallon. And here is another surprise, the world's first long-distance test driver is Karl's wife, Bertha."

" Bertha Benz, in 1886, took her 2 sons without the knowledge of her husband, Karl Benz, and traveled 100 kilometers, that's approximately 60 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim where her parents lived to make them a visit. And that was the first relevant journey with that car, and the result of this journey was a broad knowledge through newspapers and which made Karl Benz really launch his innovation and his company at that time."

" The Bertha Benz journey is amazing. Even starting a 3-wheeler is difficult but Bertha's determination and Karl's creativity made the 3-wheeler a reality, and together, they changed the world forever."

" That car made mobility start at that time, and mobility at the end helped everybody worldwide to gain that amount of quality in living and living standards we have today."