1955

  • 16 January 1955
  • In the first race of the Formula One season, the Argentine Grand Prix, Formula One world champion Juan Manuel Fangio in his Mercedes-Benz W 196 brings home another victory, despite difficult conditions caused by sweltering heat.
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  • 30 January 1955
  • The Buenos Aires Grand Prix ends in overall victory for Juan Manuel Fangio, who takes second place in both runs. In this open-formula race, Mercedes-Benz uses an uprated version of the W 196 equipped with a 3-litre engine.
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  • 30 April - 1 May 1955
  • In the Mille Miglia, the legendary thousand-mile race from Brescia to Rome and back, Mercedes-Benz scores a one-two win with the new 300 SLR racing sports car. The driver team of Stirling Moss/Denis Jenkison wins, posting a new course record and an average speed of 157.6 km/h. Juan Manuel Fangio, who competes in the gruelling road race alone, comes home second. John Fitch/Kurt Gesll win the GT category in a 300 SL production sports car and take fifth place overall; winner in the diesel category is the driver team of Helmut Retter/Wolfgang Larcher in a 180 D.
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  • 30 April - 7 May 1955
  • W. J. J. Tak/W. C. Niemöller in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL win the Tulip Rally, which finishes in the Dutch town of Noordwijk. Third place is taken by Werner Engel and Gilbert Armbrecht in a Mercedes-Benz 220.
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  • 15 May 1955
  • In the airfield race at Cumberland, Maryland/USA, Paul O'Shea in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL captures his first victory in the National Sports Car Championship organised by the Sports Car Club of America. At the end of the season O'Shea is crowned Class D Sports Car champion.
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  • 29 May 1955
  • The International Eifel Race on the Nürburgring is the scene of another one-two win in the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR: Juan Manuel Fangio wins the race and Stirling Moss finishes second. At the Swedish Grand Prix in Kristianstad on 7 August, Fangio and Moss repeat this feat in their 300 SLR racing sports cars.
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  • May 1955
  • The first Unimog S (404 series) rolls off the assembly line in Gaggenau. The lightweight all-terrain vehicle in the 1.5-tonne category is equipped with a six-cylinder carburettor engine based on the power plant of the 220 car model and initially has an output of 80 hp / 59 kW.
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  • 1 June 1955
  • I.M.A., S.A., the Daimler-Benz general distributor for Belgium, opens an assembly plant for passenger cars in Malines near Brussels. Initially the new plant handles assembly of the 180 D.
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  • 5 June 1955
  • After dropping out of the Monaco Grand Prix on 22 May, Juan Manuel Fangio wins the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps and the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort on 19 June, narrowly defeating his teammate Stirling Moss in both races.
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  • 18 July 1955
  • At the Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Daimler-Benz AG, Hermann J. Abs is elected successor to the retiring Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Rummel. At this Annual Shareholders' Meeting the Flick Group holding company announces that it holds 25 % of the Daimler-Benz share capital. Deutsche Bank also holds 25 %, and the Quandt Group 3.5 % of the shares.
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  • 20 - 24 July 1955
  • The Adria Rally across Yugoslavia from Belgrade to Opatija via Dubrovnik is won by Werner Engel and Horst Straub in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL. At the end of the motorsport season Werner Engel is European Touring Car champion.
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  • 25 - 28 August 1955
  • The Stella Alpina mountain rally, covering 1.116 km through the Dolomites, with start and finish in the Italian city of Trento, is won by Olivier Gendebien and his female co-driver Gilberte Thirion in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.
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  • 11 September 1955
  • The final race of the Formula One season, the Italian Grand Prix, marks a further success for Juan Manuel Fangio, who rides to victory in the streamlined version of the Mercedes-Benz W 196 – his fourth win in six races. Piero Taruffi, also driving a Mercedes-Benz, comes in second.
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  • 17 September 1955
  • In the Tourist Trophy race on the Dundrod circuit in Northern Irleand, the 300 SLR racing sports cars score a triple victory. The driver team Stirling Moss/John Fitch wins the race, with Juan Manuel Fangio/Karl Kling and Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips/André Simon coming in second and third respectively.
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  • 22 September - 2 October 1955
  • The L 319, Mercedes-Benz's first post-war van, is unveiled at the Frankfurt International Motor Show. Also celebrating premieres are the convertible of the six-cylinder model 220 (W 180), which comes on the market in July 1956 as the 220 S Convertible, and the coupé version of the 190 SL with removable hardtop. Other show firsts are a further development of the "Adenauer Mercedes" with Borg-Warner automatic transmission (internal designation 300 c, W 186) and a revised version of the 300 S with petrol injection (internal designation 300 Sc, W 188). As part of the improvements both models are equipped with a single-joint swing axle, as are the 180 and 180 D (W 120).
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  • 8 October 1955
  • After the government is overthrown in Argentina, Mercedes-Benz Argentina S.A. is placed under trusteeship by the military government and seized at the end of 1957. Not until autumn 1958 do Argentinean courts recognise the legality of the Daimler-Benz share.
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  • 16 October 1955
  • The Targa Florio, the gruelling road race on the Madonie circuit in Sicily, puts the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR racing sports car to the acid test. In the last race, which counts towards the constructors' rankings in the 1955 Sports Car World Championship, Stirling Moss/Peter Collins and Juan Manuel Fangio/Karl Kling take the first two places in a dramatic race and secure the title with a mere one-point lead over Ferrari.
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  • 24 October 1955
  • After a season of outstanding success, Daimler-Benz AG announces its decision to withdraw from motor sport for the immediate future.
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  • November 1955
  • An assembly plant for the 180 D is officially opened by the Daimler-Benz general distributor Universal Motors Corporation in the Philippine capital, Manila.
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  • 8 December 1955
  • After sixteen months in series production the 1,000th 300 SL car rolls off the assembly line at Sindelfingen. The export percentage of cars of this model is unusually high at 930 units.
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