Vanderbilt Cup Races

As a follow-up to the January 15, 2011 post "The American Mercedes Manufactured in Astoria Queens", Sam Berliner III, convenor of the Long Island Motor Parkway, has forwarded a copy of a 1906 brochure for the American Mercedes.

The brochure was distributed in 1961 by Mercedes-Benz Sales of South Bend, Indiana. They noted: "This is a faithful copy of a brochure issued in 1906 on the American Mercedes and has been prepared for Mercedes-Benz owners and friend in America". The Daimler Manufacturing Company was located at 939 Steinway Avenue, in Long Island City.

The brochure described the state of automobile manufacturing in 1906 from the viewpoint of Mercedes:

Whether or not domestic automobiles will some day be built which will compare favorably with their foreign cousins, is a question which the future must decide. Certainly at the present time the superiority of European cars is unquestioned, and this would seem only we consider that Europe has had some fifteen years the start of us in automobile construction, the first gasoline automobile having been invented by Daimler some thirty years ago, or fifteen years before the earliest American inventors took it up.

The Foreign Mercedes is made by the Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft at Utnterturkheim, Germany. The American Mercedes is made by the Daimler Manufacturing Company, of Long Island City, which is closely affiliated withe the parent company, and is operating under the American patents and shop rights, and licensed to reproduce in America, the Mercedes Automobile, and pays a royalty on every car built...

It will be understood that the American Mercedes is nothing or less than the Foreign Mercedes constructed on this side of the water...

The American Mercedes for 1906 will be an exact reproduction of the 45 horsepower Foreign Mercedes.

Thanks Sam III for your many contributions to VanderbiltCupRaces.com! Click here for a PDF of the 1906 brochure.

January 29, 2011 Update: An American Mercedes Ad printed in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race Program Guide

in the last five years I have used most every make of American cars and two prominent makes of foreign cars and must say the American Mercedes is far superior to anything that I have ever used. It does not seem to me necessary to purchase a new car every year if you start with a good one...."

Links to related posts on VanderbiltCupRaces.com:

The American Mercedes Manufactured in Astoria Queens

Who Invented the automobile?

A Family Remembers a Vanderbilt Cup Race Driver- Wilhelm (William) Luttgen

The Convenor of the Long Island Motor Parkway Panel- Sam Berliner III