How do you celebrate turning 125 years old? With a day trip to Mercedes-Benz World, of course
Price £25,525
MPG 42.2
Top speed 138mph
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| Top of the class: the super capable C-Class Photograph: Observer |
The car is 125 years old! Happy birthday! It's been quite a journey since that heady day in 1886 when Karl Benz clambered into his open three-wheeled "velocipede" and motored along the Ringstrasse in Mannheim. The vehicle, which came to be known as the Benz Patent Motor Car, looked like a park bench slung between two penny-farthing wheels… actually that's pretty much what it was. Concerned he'd run out of petrol on that first journey (there were as yet no garages, of course), Benz asked his son Eugen to run along beside him carrying a bottle of fuel. Karl later recalled: "I must have reached a speed of 16kmh." So, the first driver and already the first speeder.
The local paper, the Neue Badische Landeszeitung, had a reporter there who, in breathless prose, described the event: "A velocipede was tried out this morning. The test is said to have been satisfactory." Journalistic hyperbole had yet to be discovered.
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| The world's first car: the Benz Patent Wagon. Photograph: Daimler AG for the Observer |
Benz went on to apply for a patent (patent enthusiasts: it's number 37435), which essentially became the automobile's birth certificate. In the 125 years since, Mercedes-Benz has applied for a further 80,000 patents – a list of astonishing and groundbreaking motoring milestones which have turned Benz's velocipede into the omnipotent modern motor car we all take for granted today.
To get into the birthday spirit, I drive the new C-class, the capable workhorse at the heart of the Mercedes-Benz line-up, to Mercedes-Benz World. Yes, non-car lovers, that's right – Mercedes-Benz World, a theme park slash temple to the brand located on the historic Brooklands site. For devotees, it's a beautiful, restful place to pause and take in all that's marvellous about the cars of the three-pointed star. For non-believers, it's a stultifyingly turgid day out, but there is a nice café.
At first I had a great time getting up close and personal with the famous Mercs of the past. There's the iconic Gullwing, the lavish Maybach and, oh my, the awesome McLaren F1. The cars crouch on gallery-grade plinths, like works of art in a huge glass-and-steel mausoleum. But as the day wears on I start to feel a little sad. Seeing how far the car has come, all that it has achieved, I can't escape the feeling that somehow we are on the final lap, that the car's journey is coming to an end. One day will these cars be little more than exhibits from a forgotten world? Like the spine-tingling scene at the end of Planet of the Apes where they find those last humans, stuffed, with taxidermists' stitches edging their hairlines.
I climb back into the C-class. Reliable, comfortable, safe, efficient, sexy, triumphantly well made and intuitive to drive. Its engine uses 10 times less fuel than the first diesel of 1936. As I turn the key I mentally run through the list of life-saving firsts that now come with each and every Mercedes. The crumple zone and rigid passenger cage from 1959; anti-lock braking from 1978; airbags from 1981; electronic stability from 1995…
One of the things this car isn't yet fitted with is a Pre-Scan chassis – another patent. Cars will soon be able to read the surface of the road ahead using laser sensors and adjust their suspension to give you a super smooth "magic carpet ride". Maybe there's life in the old car yet. Maybe I'll get my son to run alongside me to remind me just how far we've come.
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