"The W111 Mercedes Benz was a seminal shift in Germany's postwar automotive evolution. Catering for a rapidly expanding middle class growing out of the ashes of war, it was a staple to the reconstructing executive class of Germany.
We spotted "
First, an admission. Until very recently we had never been truly moved by the brand that is Mercedes-Benz. We can’t help but acknowledge the noble heritage of the marque, nor the fact that they make some of the most outrageously, mechanically, stoically and teutonically beautiful cars ever created. It’s just that the thing signified has never for us been truly and properly evoked by the signifier. In other words, until recently, we have never fully bought into the brand values espoused by the three pointed star.
Apparently, the logo’s three abstracted cardinal points represents the company’s intent on dominating land, sea and air. It might seem a little, shall we say, fascistic an impulse to encode into your logo – but you’ve got to remember that the brand was created at a time when German imperialism was spilling out all over the planet and coming head to head with that good ole’ British imperial impulse. Yes, Mercedes-Benz’s earliest creations where fully crystallised aspects of the Age of Empire – when progress was all about going further, faster, higher, – and subjugating anyone or any thing that might dare to get in the way of the establishment.
And there’s something of this road-ruling aesthetic that survives to this day in the vehicles Merc produces, right from the mini-titan of the A-class right through to the forest roaming Unimogs and SLS supercars that eat up the autobahns of the planet.
Could it be that as Lewis Hamilton fans, we’re starting to buy into the brand through celebrity association with motorsport? It could be. But it could also be a bit of simple maturity on our part. No more for us is automotive passion the sole preserve of the Roman – or the straightline focussed brutality of Americana.
We suppose everyone in the end, aspires to own a Mercedes.
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It must be one of the automotive marketing world's greatest coups. Every week, we've been glimpsing the mechanical beauty that is the gull-winged Mercedes SLS coupé by AMG set the pace as the F1 Safety "
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Been thinking of Lewis Hamilton's move to Mercedes for the coming F1 season. What with Merc's talismanic association with Stirling Moss and the great Ross Brawn's involvement in the Mercedes F1 team, there's a great chance that despite appearing to "
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When we think of cars made by Mercedes Benz, we think of big, hulking, masculine brutes like our favorite hulk the G-Wagen. There's something obviously Germanic and heftily big boned about them, something that has, to be frank, rarely mustered "
"Classic this one. Sometimes the slickness of contemporary TV car shows forget the gonzo-like beauty of a good old fashioned burn up. And this is a classic old fashioned burn up.
We're not sure where or when this was shot, "
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Ok, you can't drive it on the road, it looks like a nightmare in which Hieronymous Bosch interprets a Wagner symphony in a room full of blood lusted Valkyries, but we can't keep our minds off AMG's SLS GT3.
Merc "
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"The nice people at Influx suggested earlier this year that they wanted three films off us.
One on minibuses, one on bubblecars and one on car detailers. Trying to find an interesting angle on minibuses was tough I’ll be "