Building Perfection: The W-196 Transporter

The only people who have the capacity to conceive of a great idea like this one are those that are obsessed with perfection, like the people at Mercedes Benz. To transport a racing car to events around Europe, you build a magnificent transporter that attracts everyone's attention and is one of the fastest carriers as well. But what could possibly possess the company to invest vaults of money and countless hours in the design and construction of such a one off commercial carrier? Wouldn't an unpretentious van that was large enough have served the purpose?

The story behind the transporter's creation is a blending of pride, passion and practicality. Before World War I began, Mercedes Benz and the remaining racing teams of Germany were caught in a bitter competition. However, Mercedes' V 12 powered W 154 proved to be the car to beat, as it won 12 of the 17 events leading up to the war. Till 1952, Mercedes had stayed out of Grand Prix racing and returned to the scene only with the start of the 1954 season.

Mercedes thus built a special carrier for its W-196, a new breed of racing cars to have a celebrated Argentine racer behind its wheels. The transporter had to look different than any other of its kind while being instantly identifiable on the road as being designed by Mercedes. It also had to be the swiftest of its kind, and even as fast as any other vehicle that might be on the freeways of the Western part of Europe at the time.

On being the first team to reach the tracks you gave yourself a head start in terms of preparation and practice time. It also gave you time for repairs and even get the car back to the tracks ahead of time. Technically, the transporter incorporated the best that Mercedes Benz had to offer. The X-shaped frame from the 300 S sedan was extended and given it, along with the 3.0 liter, 6-cylinder engine and the four speed manual transmission that are so common in the 300 SL series of sports cars released by Mercedes. The braking was that of the regular hydraulic drums augmented with power-assistance.

However, what was most awe-inspiring was the body work on the carrier. The panels that were used on it were built on the models that used to be in existence in that time. The 180 S served as the template for the doors, the interiors fixtures, and the windshield. In total, it had the capacity to take loading ramps, two spare tires, tools, and other equipments for the racing car without any difficulty.

The single cab was kept unconventionally up front, way too much ahead of the front axle, and the cab itself was placed seemingly too low, but the look that was obtained in the end was definitely Mercedes Benz. It had a factory blue paint that just made it all the more popular. Even when it was fully loaded with 6,600 pounds, it could go beyond 100 mph, a speed that is fast even in today's age.

The carrier was rolled out in mid-1954, only to be an instant success in the racetracks of Europe and in the U.S. In fact, many of the crowds that flocked to it were far greater than those that surrounded the race cars it carried. As a consequence of the tragedy at the 1955 French 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, where a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR that had entered privately crashed and killed80 people, the company went in to a hiatus from racing. The offshoot was that the whole racing division, the transporter included, was taken apart by autumn that year.

There were intentions of placing the carrier and its valuable cargo in the museum of the company, but the total load was more than the floors could take, and this idea was then abandoned. In the years following its termination, Mercedes Benz got such a huge number of requests that it decided to make a replica in 1993. The replica was finished in 2000, after the company worked for years with an outside fabricator, a few photographs, and some handful of sketches. Thus, all those who were ardent fans of this influential carrier in the history of formula racing can now see it in the museums.