“ I have a weakness for the racing cars of the 20’s and 30’s and when I got this Mercedes Benz engine , I thought it would be nice to make a recreation of Mercedes Benz 2 litre, 8 cilinder which had won the Targa Florio in 1924.”
~ Diego De Luca ~
-
220 Mercedes Benz six cilinder engine and 4 speed gearbox.
-
Top speed 195 kph
-
Aluminum body
-
Drum brakes on 4 wheels
-
Wheelbase 2,70
-
Total length 3,80
TECHNICAL DATA
HISTORY
This is the recreation of one of the versions of the Mercedes Benz 2-litre 8 cylinder racing car from 1924/25. After the poor performance of the car in Indianapolis in 1923, Daimler Benz incorporates the talented engineer Ferdinand Porsche who spent nine months working out technical problems to conclude that the wild roads of Sicily offered better chances of success. In 1924 the car participates in the Targa Florio finishing 1, 2 and 3. The car was painted red instead of white which was the official German colour, to avoid spectators throwing stones at the car as red was the official colour for italian
cars.
CONSTRUCTION
I have a weakness for the racing cars of the 20’s and 30’s and when I got this Mercedes Benz engine , I thought it would be nice to make a recreation of Mercedes Benz 2 litre, 8 cilinder which had won the Targa Florio in 1924. I meant to work on this proyect as a break from others to which I was devoting most of my time and so I started work with no hurry. Some months later an old acquaintance of mine came to visit me at my workshop with a friend of his who had a collection of Mercedes Benz cars but none of them were vintage or racing cars. When he saw this car which was still at a very early stage of construction he said he wanted it. The construction offered no difficulties and it turned out to be a very strong car indeed. It participated in the Baquets Grand Prix in Argentina which covers different provinces along rough ground for more than a week and the car did not have a single problem from beginning to end.”
