Vis-a-Vis Victoria

Two individuals working independently are credited with creating the automobile roughly around the same time. These two individuals are Gottlieb Daimler and Carl (Karl) Benz of Mannheim, Germany. Both individuals used an internal combustion engine to provide the power, but the resulting styles of the automobile were unique. Daimler used pre-existing vehicles while Benz created a unified engine and chassis. By 1885, Benz's three-wheeler vehicle had been created but he waited a few years before offering them for sale. From 1885 through 1890, he spent his time perfecting his product. By 1890 he was offering the three-wheeled vehicles for sale on a 'to order' basis. Benz struggled with steering and thus kept the three-wheeled design until 1893. By then, a solution had been found and the first four-wheeled Benz, the Viktoria, was introduced. The following year he introduced the Velo which was a lighter vehicle that offered improved maneuverability. By 1898 the Velo Comfortable was introduced which offered a greater degree of luxury. During that same year, it proved its abilities by accomplishing a reliability run between London and Oxford, England.

In 1898 King Leopold II of Belgium commissioned Benz to create an automobile. The result was the Duc which stayed in production until 1900. Rather than using the traditional tiller steering, Benz used a revolutionary but primitive form of rack-and-pinion. This particular Benz Duc was created in 1900 and has the initials of original owner inscribed on the dash. The owner was Fritz Held who was Germany's first automobile race driver and Benz sales representative in Mannheim. It carried a sticker price of roughly $1050 and sat atop a 62-inch wheelbase. It is powered by a single-cylinder engine that produced six horsepower.

1899 was a strong year for Benz, with nearly 600 cars being produced. This made him one of the world's foremost automobile producers. The other prominent German manufacturer was Daimler, who sold his cars under the name 'Mercedes' beginning in 1901. By 1926 the two companies merged to form Mercedes-Benz.

by Dan Vaughan