Mercedes racing car transporter, 1924

From the early days of motorsport until the 1930s, it was customary to drive the racing cars to the venue on their own power. This not only put a strain on man and machine, it also put the driver and vehicle under additional stress – the vehicles were often only ready at the very last minute and then had to be driven to the venue under time pressure and sometimes in adverse weather conditions.

In 1924, the newly crowned Targa Florio winner Christian Werner and his driver colleague Alfred Neubauer developed the idea of transporting the racing cars instead of driving them to the venue. In order to be able to act quickly and flexibly, they did not rely on a conventional truck, but used a chassis of the Mercedes 24/100/140 PS high-performance vehicle with a supercharged 6.3-litre six-cylinder engine. The racing transporter had its first outing in autumn 1924 with the brand new two-litre, eight-cylinder racing car, which made its racing debut at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

From the 1930s onwards, the precious racing cars were transported to the racetracks of Europe by truck, and in 1955 the Mercedes-Benz racing department took up the concept of the racing car express transporter again.