Word: benzes
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...race went on. The winning car: a British Jaguar driven by Tony Rolt and C. Duncan Hamilton, which set a Le Mans distance record of 2,535 miles. The Jaguar's average speed: 106 m.p.h., cracking the old record of 96.7 set last year by a German Mercedes Benz. Jaguars also placed second and fourth, with Fitch and his relief driver, Phil Walters, third in their Cunningham...
...Royal Tradition. Daimler-Benz's highly skilled workers take it for granted that the new car will be a winner, for their company has a pace-setting tradition. Old Karl Benz invented one of the first gasoline engines, built racers which set such speed marks as Barney Oldfield's 131-m.p.h. pace on Daytona Beach's measured mile in 1910. Gottlieb Daimler, whose company merged with Benz's in 1926, built the first practical gasoline-driven car, and turned out luxurious limousines for royalty (e.g., England's Queen Alexandra and Germany's own Kaiser...
...Daimler-Benz's postwar comeback was slow. For months, the surviving work force of 13,000 did little but rebuild U.S. staff cars to get money to reconstruct the smashed plant. Under Fritz Koenecke, 54, a wartime synthetic-rubber expert, Daimler-Benz production has risen to almost 25% more than its 1938 peacetime peak; its work force is now 35,000. In 1951, Daimler-Benz led all West German auto makers in value of production (800 million Deutsche mark, or $190 million), this year expects to produce 1 billion ($238 million) worth of autos and trucks. Already better than...
Fine Tolerances. As soon as Daimler-Benz was making money again, it went out to recapture its old racing honors. In 1952, it sent the powerful, speedy 300 SL to Brescia for Italy's famed Mille Miglia (1,000-mile race). Along went a famed prewar Mercedes figure, vat-sized Alfred Neubauer, 62, pit boss in the 1930s. Neubauer, who wears two stop watches about his neck and likes to keep a cooling case of Munich beer close by, had lost none of his cunning. Under his split-second training, crews changed tires and refueled the Mercedes...
...Daimler-Benz, the craftsmen take just as great pains with the cars. One out of every 15 production workers is a tester, who makes sure each car meets exacting requirements. Engine parts are machined to fine tolerances, each engine is tested on a block for from four to twelve hours. Daimler-Benz makes eight models of Mercedes, including two diesel-powered ones, which range from the relatively inexpensive four-cylinder 170 V ($1,890 and about 60 h.p.) to the six-cylinder 300 S (about 190 h.p.). With their old-fashioned bodies, they resemble 1936, and older, U.S. cars. Their...