Classic & Sports Car Magazine April 2016 Back Issue

GULLWING GLORY
When Laurence Pomeroy of The Motor reported spotting a group of Mercedes veterans spectating at Le Mans in 1951, few of his readers could have imagined that a legend was in the making. In spite of the firm’s pre-war motorsport dominance, there were scant clues to suggest that in 1952 Stuttgart would score a series of victories that would seal its place among the emerging new order. Mercedes-Benz was a manufacturer of well-engineered vehicles of excellent quality, but, having barely survived the bombing that had destroyed its home town, the name was no longer the synonym for racing success that it had been a dozen years earlier. More significantly, in a dollar-hungry Europe, Mercedes certainly didn’t offer a rival to the exciting new models from Jaguar and Ferrari.