On this Week’s Episode of GTW, it’s another episode of “The Makes” with Mercedes Benz. We start with the end of WWII (because we botched the first round of the Creation-WWII episode) and going right up to today. We are talking everything that makes Mercedes truly “the best or nothing” from their incredible rise from the ashes of a burned out Stuttgart to the highs of taking a Formula One world Championship just 10 years later. This dominance coming to a sudden and tragic end with the worst motorsport accident of all time, one that fundamentally changed not just motorsport but even manufacturers policies as well. We also go in depth into the great models of Mercedes Benz that took it from a symbol of evil to one of supreme style and class, as well as some of the incredible personalities that owned them (and some that brought some of that evil back into focus). Also we talk in depth about one of the great conspiracy theories that takes place in a Mercedes Benz inside of a tunnel in France in 1997. Finally, we talk about where they are now: their dominance in Formula One by bringing in some of the greatest racing minds in the world, their slightly bloated lineup full of crossovers, and their quiet maneuverings to possibly completely upset the EV market.
But that’s a lot so here’s the show notes:
0:55- Too Long Didn’t Read on Part 1
1:25 Uncle Jimmy talks about WWII and the rebound that the company and Germany made
8:00 Stuttgart 1945
12:42 Benz directly post war have to make do with what they had
18:50 A Record that will never be beaten (Mille Miglia)
25:36: Mercedes Benz comes back to Formula 1
30:30 Lemans Disaster
37:10 British Drivers and the Silver Arrows
41:00: the 300 Gullwing
52:30 1963 and the 600 Grosser
57:00 600 Grosser Owners
1:02:00 the 220 SL Pagoda
1:04:00 An S Class Mercedes is the car normal people buy in 15-20 years
1:06:20 Racing in general
1;07:40 W114, W115
1:10:00 “The Big”, and V8’s in general
1:23.00 W123
1:26:00 G Wagen
1:28:00 Cosworth and the 190e(and the Vega)
1:32:00 AMG and MB in the 90s
1:33:40: Diana and the potential conspiracy
1:42:28 Mercedes McLaren
1:45:00 Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda
1:49:00 Engineering and the Germans, and where MB is now in our opinion
2:01:00 AMG Now
2:03:00 EQ and Electric Mercedes
2:08:10 Hype
2:09:26: How we feel about Benz