Description
• One of about 15 built and only six still existing Type 37/ 90 with chain
drive and 9. 5 litre of displacement and 90 hp
• Exhibition car of Saoutchik at the Paris Automobile Salon 1913
• According to Mercedes Benz Classic engine is "matching numbers"
• All original chassis
• Older restoration, continuously technically maintained
• History known, most recently in a Swiss collection for over 30 years
• 110 years ago the fastest road car in the world
The chassis of this Mercedes 37/ 90 was manufactured in the model year 1912. According to the Mercedes Benz Classic Archive, it was delivered to Paris on February 21, 1913. The original engine is still installed in the vehicle today. In Paris, the rolling chassis was fitted with a sporty body by the well-known coachbuilder Saoutchik. This design was named the "Torpedo Speedster" and the car was then exhibited by Saoutchik at the Paris Motor Show in 1913.
Jacques Saoutchik had a close relationship with the Mercedes sales company in Paris since 1906 and was an important partner for special coachwork requests. The design of the Torpedo Speedster was adapted from the factory body of the 90 hp Mercedes touring cars. However, it was finished much slimmer and lower, giving the car a particularly sporty attitude. This was further emphasized by the factory external exhaust system emerging from the side of the front body.
The drive of the Type 37/ 90 is a four-cylinder in-line engine with a monumental 9. 5 litre displacement (!) and an output of 90 hp. A sensational value 110 years ago. The engine developed by Paul Daimler was the top model of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) and was also called the "chain car" because of its chain drive. It was one of the most powerful automobiles on the market at the time and is still considered the fastest road vehicle in the world at the time of its presentation. In this context, it is also referred to as the "SSK" of the 1910s.
This is why the 37/ 90 models were also used in motor racing in particular. Famous racing drivers such as Christian Lautenschlager, Otto Salzer and Ralph De Palma won a multitude of racing competitions with this engine type. Motorised racing was then the ultimate and expensive hobby of wealthy "pioneers" of the automobile era. Due to its exorbitantly high price, only very few examples of the Type 37/ 90 were manufactured.
Following the Paris Automobile Salon, this special car found its way to its buyer in Great Britain. According to our research, the car remained in Great Britain until 1986 and had several owners there. It was used in motorsports in the 1940s and 1950s, but with a different, lighter racing body.
From the mid-1950s, the car was owned by Charly Clifton of Northhamptonshire and Harry Halkyard of Leicastershire and was raced with a two-seater body at Silverstone and various hill-climb competitions. Then in 1961 the father of the penultimate owner Bridget Laycock acquired the car. The Laycock family kept the automobile until the 1980s and had an extensive restoration carried out during that period. In 1978, the original Saoutchik body was also rebuilt in the Torpedo Speedster design from old drawings. In December 1986 this 37/ 90 with its reobtained appearance came to its last ownership – a private Swiss museum – via a British auction house. There it was technically very well maintained and regularly driven.
It is believed that only 15 examples of the Mercedes Type 37/ 90 were sold because of its high price. According to the register kept by Tymothy Russel, only six cars still exist today. Our car still has its original nameplate and the one on the engine is also still present.
We had the opportunity to take an extended drive through the vineyards of western Switzerland with the museum collection's vehicle master. We had not thought such a brute torque of the engine possible from vehicles of this era until then !
