1903

21 January 1903
DMG delivers the first new Mercedes of the model year 1903 – the 18/22 hp Mercedes-Simplex. The engine is the first to be fitted by DMG to feature overhead intake valves activated by push rods.

24 January 1903
Carl Benz leaves Benz & Cie. In 1904 he is appointed to the company's Supervisory Board.

17 February 1903
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft delivers the first 60 hp Mercedes-Simplex to Emil Jellinek. The new model is the most powerful Mercedes yet.

8 - 22 March 1903
The first Benz series-produced four-cylinder car is presented at the Berlin Motor Show. In contrast to the company’s two-cylinder models, the 16/20 hp Benz Parsifal is fitted with a chain drive.

14 - 29 March 1903
At the International Motor Show in Vienna, Österreichische Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft presents the Coupé and Double Phaeton variants of the small car designed by Paul Daimler in Cannstatt. Production begins in Wiener Neustadt, but not in high unit numbers.

Spring 1903
The Società Italiana dei Motori Daimler is established in Milan. In Italy it functions as a repair facility and handles the sale of products for which Emil Jellinek does not have distribution rights.

1 April 1903
The Nice - La Turbie hillclimb ends in a one-two finish for the 60 hp Mercedes-Simplex models of Otto Hieronimus and Wilhelm Werner. However, victory is overshadowed by the death of the British driver Count Zborowski, who comes to grief in his 60 hp car at the same spot as Wilhelm Bauer three years earlier. On 7 April Mercedes tastes success once again, this time in the mile race and record-breaking attempts on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.

9/10 June 1903
A major fire at Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft’s Cannstatt plant destroys the production hall, gutting a total of 90 cars in the process – some already completed, some still under construction. Among the vehicles lost are the three 90 hp racing cars intended for the Gordon Bennett Race. As a result of the devastating blaze, work is stepped up on the new factory in Untertürkheim, with day and night shifts introduced.

2 July 1903
Belgian driver Camille Jenatzy wins the fourth Gordon Bennett Race in Ireland in a 60 hp Mercedes. The car belongs to American enthusiast Clarence Gray Dinsmore from New York, who loaned it to Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft for the race following the fire in Cannstatt.

17 September 1903
Hermann Braun in a 60 hp Mercedes-Simplex wins the fifth Semmering Race in a new record time to help Clarence Gray Dinsmore, the car's owner, defend the Challenge Trophy.

December 1903
Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft inaugurates the first production facility in its newly constructed Untertürkheim plant.