PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

BENZ-LGB · #16 02-26-2007, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlomon

Well...it is "Portia" not "Porsche". But the pronunciation is the same. And Mercedes is a very old Spanish girl name. The story goes that when Daimler and Benz were seeking financing, a wealthy man agreed to come up with enough money to get them going, providing they named the car after his daughter, Mercedes. So instead of driving a Daimler-Benz, we have a Mercedes-Benz.

Mercedes' daddy was a wealthy French businessman. He fancied himself some sort of car racer (rich guy, too much time on his hands, takes up car racing as a hobby). He also liked to do weird things like race up a hill to see how fast his cars wold make it up the hill.

Here is more from Wikipedia:

In 1899, DMG automobiles built at Untertürkheim (a city district of Stuttgart) were raced successfully by Emil Jellinek (1853-1918), an automobile enthusiast and dealer. He had the name of his daughter, Mercedes, painted on the automobiles for good luck. Wanting faster race cars, it was Jellinek who spurred the development of the seminal 1900 DMG model that would be the first of the DMG Mercedes series, bearing the name of his daughter.

After suggesting some design specifications, he promised to purchase thirty-six of the new DMG model if Maybach would name the new 35 hp engine contained in it the Daimler-Mercedes engine. A contract of five hundred and fifty thousand marks was made for these new models. Within weeks he contracted for thirty-six of another DMG model with 8 hp engines. He was granted an exclusive concession to sell the new DMG automobiles in Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium, and USA.

Carl, I like McKennitt's lyrics.

Guido

I have a hard time comprehending, let alone liking Goethe!

But...he was a lawyer who preferred writing to practicing law, so I guess he was not all bad.