International Benz

Who made the first motor car? That’s a question which will forever be debated, but there’s little doubt the earliest petrol engine car to run successfully and to enter commercial manufacture was that of Karl Benz.

The first Benz cars were three-wheelers, the Modell 3 of 1888 being the first to go into series (25 were manufactured) production. Karl’s wife, Bertha, was very much involved, offering advice, generally assisting her husband in developing the first cars, and in August 1888 making the first serious city-to-city journey, driving the 50 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim to visit her mother whilst Karl slept.

Karl produced his first four-wheeler, the Viktoria, in 1893, followed by a number of derivatives and a smaller Velo in 1894, to make Benz (with over 2,000 sold) the most successful car maker in the world by 1900. But the basic layout of a ‘flat’ rear mounted engine proved to be outdated for the new century and sales began to decline. New designers and new, front engine models helped to keep the company going, but Karl Benz left in 1906. The Mercedes-Benz company resulted from the merger with Daimler (who used the name Mercedes in recognition of the daughter of their best customer Emile Jellinik) in 1926.

About this vehicle

The International Benz ‘dog cart’ at Old Warden was imported from the Roger Company of France. Emile Roger was the Paris agent for Benz gas fuelled stationary engines and, in fact, became Benz’ first ever customer buying, possibly, Karl’s third car in 1888. From then Roger began to assemble and sell Benz cars under his own name.

This early model has a horizontally mounted, single-cylinder, engine and three speed belt transmission to the rear wheels, all housed at the rear, behind and beneath the seat. There is no provision for reverse apart from dismounting to push. The engine is started by pulling over the large spoked flywheel by hand. The term ‘dog cart’ is due to the car’s similarity to horse drawn vehicles in which sporting dogs were carried at the rear.

The Collection’s car was purchased from a car breaker in Honiton, Devon, for the princely sum of £35 by Richard Shuttleworth in 1930 and after restoration was added to The Collection. One of Richard’s favourite cars, he once remarked: ’it’s more fun than all the others put together and far more reliable’. It has taken part in numerous London to Brighton veteran car runs.