Mercedes-Benz Benz Velo

Benz Velo at a glance

From the Patent-Motorwagen to the Velo

Karl Benz patented his three-wheeled Motorwagen in 1886 and moved to four wheels with the Viktoria of 1893. The Velo, presented in 1894, was a smaller and lighter companion to the Viktoria, with the same rear-mounted single-cylinder layout. It ran on thin wire wheels like those of a bicycle, and Benz sold it as the "Velociped", a name taken from the bicycle. German Wikipedia notes that at the same time Duryea in Springfield, Massachusetts, was also building cars in series, while Panhard & Levassor still built them one at a time.

The demand surprised even the maker. Motor1 quotes Karl Benz from a 1909 interview: "This vehicle was literally snatched out of our hands. What we made of it was sold." English Wikipedia records 67 cars in 1894 and 134 in 1895. The background of the company is in our history of Mercedes-Benz.

Engine and drive

The engine lay horizontally behind the seats, with a vertical flywheel. Bore and stroke were both 110 mm, for 1,045 cc. Output rose almost every year:

Motor1 adds that the Comfortable reached 3.3 kW (4.5 PS) in 1902. Early engines used a surface carburettor and induction-coil ignition; from 1896 a float-feed carburettor, battery ignition and a starting crank were fitted. The first cars had two forward speeds; from 1896 a third gear and reverse were available at extra cost, and from 1900 they were standard.

From 1.1 kW to 3.3 kW in eight years, the output tripled while the displacement stayed the same. Our power converter shows the PS and hp equivalents of these small figures.

Velo, Comfortable and Ideal

Pneumatic tyres were an extra-cost option. A trilingual catalogue in German, English and French appeared in 1901. In France the car was sold as the "Éclair" (lightning), and Émile Roger built Benz engines and cars there under licence. In Britain the engineer Arnold obtained a licence in 1895; his Arnold Motor Carriage is counted among the first British cars. Other British makers, among them Marshall (later Belsize) and Star, built copies of the Velo.

Paris–Rouen and other firsts

On 22 July 1894 a Velo took part in the Paris–Rouen trial organised by the newspaper Le Petit Journal under its editor Pierre Giffard. English Wikipedia's Velo article says it placed fifth; the article on the race lists Émile Roger's Benz 14th of 17 finishers on time, 10 hours 1 minute for the 126 km, and fifth in the prize list. Karl Benz's biography gives the same time and an average of 12.7 km/h. The event is widely cited as the beginning of modern motor sport. In June 1895 another Benz, entered by Roger and driven by Hans Thum, finished fifth in the 1,178 km Paris–Bordeaux–Paris race in 64 hours 30 minutes. Three years later the Velo reached Africa: in January 1897 it became the first car introduced to South Africa, where it was demonstrated to President Paul Kruger.

The Velo's place in history comes from numbers rather than speed. Its top speed was only about 19–20 km/h, but more than 1,200 cars of one standard design made it the first car built as a product in series rather than one at a time.

Benz & Cie. in the Velo years

The Velo arrived when Benz & Cie. was growing fast. The four-wheeled Viktoria of 1893 had a 2.2 kW (3 hp) engine, a top speed of 18 km/h and a pivoting front axle steered by a tiller; 85 were sold in its first year, and a four-seat version with facing benches was called the "Vis-à-Vis". The smaller Velo then took the company to series production.

In 1899 Friedrich von Fischer and Julius Ganß joined the board and pressed for a cheaper car suited to large-scale production. Competition grew: in 1900 Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft delivered the first Mercedes to Emil Jellinek, and in 1903 Karl Benz withdrew from design management after the other directors hired French designers without consulting him.

Benz Velo compared with other early cars

By our count across the 1cars pioneer articles, the Velo had the largest engine of the early small cars but not the most power per litre. The figures come from each car's Wikipedia articles:

The Velo's 1,045 cc single gave 1.1 kW at first, while De Dion-Bouton's 402 cc engine of 1899 gave 2.6 kW at much higher revs. On the other hand, the Velo was built in over 1,200 examples, far more than the 64 Peugeot Type 3 or the two dozen first Fiats.

The Velo today

Velos still take part in veteran car events: the photograph below shows a 1898 Velo Dogcart on the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2010. Because Benz improved the car every year, cars of different years differ in output, ignition and gearing, as the engine table above shows.

• For the original design: an early Velo with the two-speed gearbox and 1.1–2.1 kW.
• For usability: a later car from 1900 with three speeds and reverse as standard.
• For more comfort: a Comfortable, with the longer body and better seats.
• Check the history: licence-built and copied cars from France and Britain look very similar.

Current and past Mercedes-Benz models are listed in the Mercedes-Benz catalogue, and more early cars are in our classic cars section.

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