Mercedes
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, independently of each other, invented the motorcar in 1886. Later on the salesmanship of Emil Jellinek coupled with the genius of Wilhelm Maybach catapulted Daimler into the top echelons of motor car manufacturing, marketed under the non Teutonic name of Mercedes, the name of Jellineks daughter. Much later on in 1926, due to the struggling German economic situation, the Daimler and Benz companies merged. The Benz side now specialised in heavy truck side of the manufacturing while the motorcars produced thereafter were called Mercedes-Benz, from top of the range S, SS and SSK, to the later 500K and 540K's of the 1930's, as well as their smaller models. Post war started with the small prewar 170 which was slowly modernised in petrol and diesel formats. By 1951 a 6 cylinder type 300 was introduced. The same year the 170 became a 180 while a new 4 cylinder 190 was the first postwar model to have the overhead camshaft and valves. This 190 was developed into the 220, while the 300 series was year on year improved on. By 1964 the V8 6.3 Mercedes 600 was available, mostly to heads of state, and in various body specifications including armour plate.
From the Adenauer Mercedes 300 was developed the 300SL (1954) with its initially high and later low pivot swing axle rear end. Later on came the smaller and more affordable 190SL (1956), Fintail (1959) and the rage of cars spawned from the 220SE W111 in 1960 (280SE, 300SE). Then came the successor to the 190SL which was the "Pagoda" 230SL in 1963. The S Class started in 1972 (short for the German Sonderklass or Special Class) which became one of the best selling luxury saloon cars..= The next big jump was the 350SL W107 that came in 1972 and 500SEL and off road G Class in 1979 and the list goes on!
Regarding tyres for these Mercedes, you may want to ask yourselves why Blockley was started up to make tyres, when there are so many Classic brands such as Michelin, Vredestine, Maxxis that people use, or even Hankook, Milestar and Galaxy that the Classic tyre wholesalers also keenly push. The reason is that at Blockley Tyre Co. we want to make the best that is possible, because we are end users of these tyres ourselves. Because the Blockley tyres are costly to make using all new equipment, we can charge a fair and low realistic retail price by selling them direct to the end user or garages / restorers. And the product is so good and authentic that we guarantee that if they are not the best a customer has experienced we will refund.
So as an example you can pay circa £1,400 for a set of Michelin XWX 205/70VR14, or pay circa £700 including vat for a set of the Blockley 205/70VR14, so we would suggest you don't be fooled by "brand" and a reassuringly high price that goes along with them, which are made no doubt as much to line the pockets of the wholesalers as anything else. Our Blockley tyres are in a class of their own in handling, wet weather performance, quality and anything else you can think of, with the 185R14 size being produced by Blockley Tyre Co. only at the express request of one of the German Mercedes Clubs, who needed something better than the Michelin they were using, and at a price that was basically not a rip off. Interesting that the list price of the Michelin was lowered after the Blockley Mercedes size was available. . .
