Sunday 8th March 1885

Gottlieb Daimler purchased a stagecoach made by Wilhelm Wimpff & Sohn on this day. With the help of Wilhelm Maybach they adapted it to hold his “grandfather clock” engine, thereby creating the world’s first four-wheeled automobile. It was capable of a top speed of 18 kilometers per hour. In 1890, Daimler founded the Daimler Motor Company in Cannstatt, near Stuttgart, to mass-produce his designs. The only distinction about this carriage was that it carried an internal combustion engine. None of many similar attempts to adapt carts, boats, or carriages—in many countries—were propelled by this type of engine. In 1899, Daimler asked Maybach to design a racing car, which was given the name “Mercedes.”