New Years’ Eve, 1879. 35 year old Karl Benz and his wife Bertha are huddled around a small block of iron. Karl no doubt thinks about the decade’s worth of work and near-financial ruin contained in its small footprint. But even if he can finally get it to run smoothly, it’s only a first step. His end goal is to use it in a horseless carriage, with the hopes of changing the way people move. But how did Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, and Wilhelm Maybach revolutionize the internal combustion engine? How did they create an industry from essentially nothing? And how is the story of the automobile itself inextricable from the story of Mercedes-Benz? Today on Past Gas, the first episode in a four-part series on the history of Mercedes-Benz.
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Past Gas #236: The Rowdiest Family in F1 History
Past Gas #235: Datsun, Pt 2: Why Datsun Had To Die
Past Gas #234: Datsun, Pt 1: Why Nissan Created Datsun
Past Gas #233: Bathurst 1000: Australia’s Most Brutal Endurance Race
Past Gas #232: What Happened with SAAB? Pt 2
Past Gas #231: What Happened with SAAB? Pt 1
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Past Gas #229: Mazda Pt 4: Mazda Pt 4: The First Japanese Car to Win Le Mans + 787B sounds
The Big Three #2: Dodge's Charger EV Video is Unhinged
Past Gas #228: Mazda Pt 3: The RX-7 & Mazdaspeed
The Big Three #1: Unpacking Tesla's Empty Promises
Past Gas #227: Mazda Pt 2: The Birth of the Rotary Engine
Past Gas #226: Mazda Pt 1: Mazda Used to be a Cork Factory
Past Gas #225: Macau GP - “Asia’s Monaco” is a Notoriously Dangerous Street Circuit
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Past Gas #222: Cosworth Pt 2: WRC Rally & the Ford Escort RS Cosworth
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