This Mercedes model is princip worth all money in the world. Only 25 cars were built and 5 are still known to exist.

Yet you should know that different models was sold with this type of body. Bodies with straight door and spare wheel in different places, hard top, fixed head coupe, and Maharadja style, so it is uncertain what Mercedes museum mean with the 25.

The model could be ordered from 1936. Sure is that the car you can see at Mercedes and Sinsheim museums are one of them.

One model with straight doors are to be found at RossoBianco-museum. A Maharadja type is shown at Bugatti-museum in Mohlsheim. I have also seen one at Åhlholms museum in Denmark, but this museum is closed 2012.

The backseat lid can be opened for another 2 seats. Another site showing "Mighty Mercedes" is

Gosh. You may say what you like about other more or less nice luxury bodies. No one beats Mercedes 540 K Special. A really show stopper. Straight 8 cylinder engine, 5400 cc, with manual connection of compressor (through accelerator).

It was only allowed to work for a few minutes. You could also order hard top as option. More about Mercedes see Mercedes museum. Prize not possible to pay.

Special Roadster Bianco Rosso Museum. Ref 1

The model first came 1936. Anyway the car which are on display at different museums are left. The rear opening had place for two seats.

"Maharadja Delight" Special Roadster from India. Ref 1

Mercedes-Benz 130H 1934-38
In the beginning av 1930 Mercedes started to search new ways.

Primary this was due to the development of engineering plants about press machines. Porsche was one constructor who had made several different car models for famous car factories like Steyr, Tatra, NSU, Zündapp and the beginning of  Volkswagen.

 This was done in his small office. Porsche was engaged several times at Mercedes Benz. For this rear mounted engine car is Hans Nibel a well known name.

 Edmund Rumpler had a curious rear engine car known as Tropfen-Auto. Mercedes Benz also used this name for a racing car with a small change to Tropfen wagen.

The car was equipped with different types of 4 cyl 1300cc, 1500cc and 1700cc engines.

Price, 2008 if you find one, £1.127.500. You can find another one at Riga museum.

In the beginning of 850 models Horch delivered even V12 engines, normally an straight eight, and price was 23500 Reichsmark and delivered 1932.

In my own opinion I found this much cooler than the Erdman & Rossi car. I don't know the exact model name but 58 units were made.

Both these car were put inside a glass cage. I am sure they didn't want people to com to close. Compare the design of connection between front and rear fender with Jean Bugatti i design of the first Royale.

Two men and their knowledge and proficiency in life were met by a coincidence without even knowing about each other.

Henry Edmunds had invited them to Midlands Hotel on the 4th of May 1904. One of them with the name Henry Royce, a skilled engineer and Charles Rolls, a reseller of cars. Sir Henry Royce had built a car already 1902, Royce 10. He had the opinion that a good product could be made better special on the engine side. His car was equipped with a 2 cylinder engine. Charles Rolls had imported mostly French cars as other countries seldom exported their cars. He was an adventurer and this
 reputation was put on a man like Rolls as he was both adventurer, a pilot and race driver. He wasn't specially sufficient with the cars quality. Royce had proved the quality of his cars by controlling them with controlled tests. At this meeting they agreed to each other that Rolls should sell all cars Royce could produce.

This became the agreement, but it was not written until December that year.
Sir Henry Royce was except a car builder even an inventor. Compare with the Volvo agreement.

One of his patents at this time was the light bulb for cars. It was formed with bayonet type. Car lamps are produced that way even today.

Charles Rolls was an educated mechanic at Cambridge. He studied here for engineer. He was one of the first to prove for car license and airplane license.

During the period between WWI and WWII. They developed airplane engines and also succeeded to make the best and strongest types. This engine was called the R-engine and it's output was about 810 hp. Later it became the famous Merlin engine with output of more than 2250 ps.

The problem was that England had no suitable airplane in which this engine could be used. In Germany it was just the opposite. Heinkel had built a plane which was called Heinkel Blitz.

Rolls Royce wanted to buy such a plane in order to win the Schneider trophy for England. The plan between Heinkel and Rolls Royce. Was to make a switch. Rolls Royce accepted, but the German RLM (Reichluft ministerium) didn't agree.

Instead England got a license for one plane and Germany got one engine. How this ended, Heinkel doesn't tell in his book Stormy life.

Cycle made by Rolls displayed at Technical museum Hälsingborg. Ref 1

Henry Leland created the Cadillac car 1900. When General Motors took over the Cadillac name 1917 Leland withdraw with all his money.

He wanted to use this money to create a new luxury car. He gave it the name Lincoln. The first car entered the market 1921. The car had several new constructions such as pressure lubrication and removable cylinder heads. The engine was a side valve V8 5.8 litre and had the maximum speed of 100 km/h. This mark was very popular by gangsters of that time. They often ordered trimmed cars.

President Coolidge hade a special ordered car. But Henry Leland was not able to generate money from the factory.

He had economical problems already 1922. During his time with Cadillac he cooperated with Ford. When Lincoln was for sale Henry Ford took over the Lincoln factory and name. Henry did this doing it as a bold stroke when the factory was auctioned. Henry Ford had planned to produce a luxury car to compete with Cadillac. Henry Leland and his son was allowed to continue with Lincoln but Leland could not agreed with the hard hands of Ford. and months later was Lelands family was out.

A Swedish inventor is deeply involved in the production of the first Cadillac, Ford and the entire American military industry. Henry Leland realized already at that time when he was working with Ford and Cadillac. Producing spare parts was a hard chapter to get the part able to be fully changeable

In order to solve this he started to produce parts with the help of C.E Johansson's patent. These were tested at the Brookland circuit. Three Cadillac cars were moved there and totally reassembled, mixed and put together again. These three cars were then driven for many laps.

Now it was proved that it was possibly to produce parts with sufficient precision. This was possible by using the Swedish inventor C. E. Johansson patent. He had opened a resell firm in USA. He got the patent already 1901 and selling was started 1907.

It became an immediate success. Anyway he had to sell his company to Henry Ford after WWI. Henry realized that this patent was necessary to produce spare parts. Although Johansson was fully detached at Ford Factory. When creating Cadillac Ford owned the production of Cadillac and the patent had been tested already 1907.

Leland opened his new firm 1917 after that GM with Durant had taken over Cadillac. The goal of Leland was to take over the production of the Liberty engine which was needed for WWI. For this Johansson's set of gauge blocks had to be used. Henry Ford didn't start to use the patent until 1910 and 1914 when it was used for the entire production line at Ford factory.

Well known is the quotation from Henry Leland "There are only two men I lift my hat for, the President of United States and Mr Johansson from Sweden".
It was also C E Johansson who introduced the overarching measure for 1 " to 25,400 mm.

Hertel 1899
This coach work can easy be transformed to Benz first 3 wheeler. Just move one front wheel to the middle and take away the other. Add a central steering handle.

Why this? Max Hertel had moved to Chicago after his cooperation with Carl Benz when they built the first car. Hertel had been classmate with Benz.

Hertel was testing gas engines (like Benz) on the road around Chicago 1985. Same year he had announced to take part in a car competition outside the town. It became a failure when the car got mechanical troubles.

Mr. Oakman wanted to start up a car business and engaged Max Hertel the same year. 1898 Oakman-Hertel started their cars and sales in Greenfield. The first car was on display at New York cycle show 1899.

In this way the Hertel make of car was born and sold for $750. This was though 4 times more than was paid for an early T-Ford.

Only 12 Hertels were produced. Today there are only three left. One in Australia, one in America (Alaska see link) and this one in Sweden. The car in America was found for many years ago by John Leather in a garage and was bought by the famous collector D. Cameron Peck. The car was renovated according the coach work.

The engine was in good stand. The type was a standing 2 cylinder gas type.

Oakman Motors which produced this early car got economical problems 1900 and the production ceased. Hertel moved back to France and there his car was named Impetus. This is the end of Max Hertel story. He has anyway a relative left in America, A Hertel. On the last auction 2009 a Hertel was paid $56 500.

About the construction I remember that my brother build a cycle car in end of 1940. It's front end was principle a copy of this Hertel. It's main problem was that in curves steering forces on the wheels became so big that the pokes of cycle wheels couldn't stand the forces. This because the wheels were not leaning. The same thing must have happened with a Hertel car.

The Hertel which is on Victoria museum in Australia was bought in Chicago my the business man J Pender from Melbourne. He was borne in Canada. At that time the car type was called Buggy. The car arrived to Australia 1897 and got of course a justified excitement as it was the first car in the country.

The engine was running on nafta spirit. One time it took fire. Pender donated it to the museum 1914. Even Daimler sold a car 1893 equipped with a front like Hertel.

About Sizaire there is no exciting or interesting stories. The production started in France outside Paris 1905.

The car was the first in the world which had individual spring system on all wheels. The front end on this car had an updated system from the first car Naudin with a cross over spring. See picture. This was built in on all wheels.

Studebaker 1947 had this construction for the front end. The spring packet carried also the lower slewing bracket just like in the picture. They used different engines like Minerva, Hotchkiss or Willys Knight. The economical crises in the beginning 1929 made that production ceased.

Maurice Sizaire, the founder had still money left and moved his now small production to Belgium. Possible with the help of surplus parts.

Sizaire Naudin

1 cyl. 918 cc according to the deDions model
The white car had an engine with one cylinder and won many competitions. It's individual front spring system gave the car a large technical advantage. The car was produced between 1905-1921 in different evolution steps.

Maurice Sizaire was the constructor and the builder was Naudin. The factory baptized their models after the name of the builder.

The production had the peculiarity having different factories producing parts and units. In this way there were except Naudin also Berwick and Frêres.

The Naudin car had the main frame made of wood but was popular for it's simplicity and low price. The model continued to be produced with larger engines and coach works. In the end it became a conventional family car. The production ceased shortly after WWI.

Maurice left Naudin and started production of a luxury car named Berwick. He also opened a production factory i England. The lines for the cooler was almost a copy of Rolls Royce. They were forced to change it when Rolls Royce made complaints.

The factory was taken over by Austin in order to use it for engines made for Austin Twenty and Twelve. In France a 3.2 litres engine was mounted from Lycoming. The English production ceased 1925 and the French around 1927.

Bantam
The most copied and widely licensed car was Austin Seven. To tell about Bantam is as telling about the story of Austin Seven.

Herbert Austin was a self taught car enthusiast in the beginning of 1900. This was the time when private studying and working with car constructions could create a successful businessmen and popular cars.

He worked as a constructor at Wolseley. But he thought that he could build a better car from his own ideas. 1905 he started his own production of a car christened to Austin. The type of models he started to sell was ordinary family cars. They had name as Austin Twelve or Twenty. He had also cooperation with Hotchkiss to whom he sold engines.

He got no great profits and realized soon that in this type there was not much money. The right type of car was a small one for England.

The taxes was count after how powerful the engine was. Furthermore motor fuel was rather expensive. During the WWI he earned much money. 1922 he used this money to evaluate a small car as Austin Seven.

This car was equipped with a 850 cc and a 13 ps engine, two placed and a help seat. The engine hade 4 cylinders and for the time be only 2 bearings. Whole England bought this cheap car model.

I am sure most of the use was to make pub rounds in the evenings. In this country this car became the T-Ford for England. Herbert Austin established this model in whole of Europe. The other car manufactures

were BMW with Dixi and Rosengart and even the American built Seven for Jaguar Swallow. Later came the Danish motorcycle Nimbus with a rebuilt Seven Engine.

Now Herbert looked at the American market. Here he started a new business with the name American Austin in Butler Pennsylvania. The car sold rather good but could not generate a profit and went bankrupt already 1934.

A salesman Roy Evans bought the company for a small sum of money. He started production again but depression had the company on it's knee and the stockholder wanted to sell their shares.

These were bought by Evans and the company was renamed to American Bantam 1935. Now he had no money left for production. Anyway he succeeded to get a money loan for 250 millions made a reconstruction and renamed the company to American Bantam.

The famous racing car producer Harry Miller and Alexix de Sakhnoffsky. This car started to sell 1938 and sold rather many although with a $75 loss for every car.

The war WWII was on the way and 1942 only 100 cars were delivered and the production ceased. The American army had asked for a small reconnaissance car.

The test car was build from main parts of Bantam. This car should be the famous Jeep. Evans got of course large license money even if it was trouble with ownership of the construction. Evans sold his company Bantam 1946, but this is another story.

Regal 1905
The firm Lacoste et Bettmann in Paris sold this kind of car 1899 up to 1905. Every car was a special order from a private customer.

They got different names like Napoleon, Gamage and Speedwell and so on. They also sold coach works and chassis. One was for an engine producer Jackson. Some cars with this mark were sold.

After 1905 a few cars came with the name Lacoste. Some cars were delivered with a four cylinder engine. The firm had also a sale office in England. All these cars with engines from DeDion, Aster or Mutel.

The car frame was mainly build from steel pipes but in England there were also cars with a wooden frame.

There were also many different cars with all sorts of engines, coach works and frames. Because of this it is almost impossible to find out the origin. The cars were well build, this can be understood because many cars have survived up to our days.

Robert Craig Hupp had once worked with Regal cars in USA and Canada 1908. These had nothing to do with Regal France

was the prestige sport car. It was announced 1936 and got great confidence. It had an engine with high positioned camshaft and spherical compression rooms.

The valves were operated by push rods in two stages. First from camshaft to inlet valve and then over to the other valve by a horizontal push rod. Between the valves there were 3 carburetors placed.

It was for this time a qualified design which gave the 328 an advantage on the race tracks. Simpler models for daily use were also produced named BMW 326 and 327.

In Sweden had among others the Captain of Swedish Air Force Björn Atterberg one 328 which he competed with.

Buick Motor Company has a long story and can be referred back to 1890. Engines were sold to the farmers around.

The man behind the name was David Buick. His company changed name several times before Buick Motor Company got it's present name. David was born in Scotland 1854 and moved to Detroit 1880.

He was a clever engineer and work within plumbing. He invented how to protect pipes with china cover. He sold this to be able to start up car production and was tremendous eager to replace horses with an engine.

He was already producing engines as he had sold them to farmers already 1890. He started carefully but he had not sufficient with money and was forced to sell his business to his economical backups such as Benjamin Briscoe and the banks.

The new owners started to move the factory to the former locals of Flint Wagons. David had a new model ready and it was tested by David's son Thomas.

In the same time the banks and his boarder forced him to get the best businessman to take over the lead. William Durant.

This man owned a patent for a spring system for horse wagons. He was very impressed of the system of Buick springs and accepted the lead offer at once.

Durant took the first car to New York Auto Show 1905 and took the lead himself in the exhibition case. Then he returned to Flint Works with several orders. 1908 Buick produced 8820 car under the Durant's lead. Buick became the largest car producer in America this year.

Durant then created the holding company which later should be General Motors. David Buick became just a spectator and could only see how Buick grew to a large car factory and died miserably poor.

Wolseley Siddely
Herbert Austin started his business as a mechanics at Wolseley works. Here he had the feeling that he could build a better car 1896.

He had bought a 3 wheeler from Paris a Léon Bollés. This car had an engine which run on gas. He reconstructed this car. At this time he was one of the owners in Wolseley.

The first rebuild car became not a good product. The second updated car came later with 4 wheels and 3.5 ps.

It made a good job in the 1000 miles trial test which was running in England. This car was manufactured from 1897 and 6 years ahead with the support of Vickers. Already 1914 they had sold 3000 copies.

During WWI the car production was ceased. Herbert Austin was a good businessman and also a clever organizer. Up to WWI he cooperated with J.P. Siddely and the cars were named Wolseley Siddely.

The obstinacy of Herbert Austin to use a horizontal 2 cyl engine made that he came in conflict with his board and because of this he resigned and opened e new firm which got the natural name Austin Motors.

Siddely resigned also and opened his firm with the name Deasy. Wolseley continued now with 4 and 6 cyl engines and followed the demands of the market.

During WWI he produced an airplane engine from Hispano-Suiza. This type was a V8, overhead cam and cylinder heads which could be dismantled. During the thirties Wolseley company came under the ownership of William Morris and there they were locked in the down trend of the English car industry and far later the former company was merged into BMC.

Here Wolseley became only a name without any developing work. The last model was a developed large Mini with hydraulic gas spring system from the small Mini. After this the name Wolseley disappeared after that the name had changed to Princess.