Benz and Cie. expansion
The great demand for static
internal combustion engines forced Benz to enlarge the factory in Mannheim, and in 1886 a new building located on Waldhofstrasse (operating until 1908) was added.
Benz & Cie. had grown in the interim from 50 employees in 1889 to 430 in 1899. During the last years of the nineteenth century,
Benz was the largest automobile company in the world with 572 units produced in 1899. Because of its size, in 1899,
Benz & Cie. became a
joint-stock company with the arrival of Friedrich von Fischer and Julius Ganß, who came aboard as members of the
Board of Management. Ganß worked in the commercialization department, which is somewhat similar to marketing in contemporary corporations. The new directors recommended that Benz should create a less expensive automobile suitable for
mass production. From 1893 to 1900 Benz sold the four wheel, two seat
Victoria, a two-passenger automobile with a engine, which could reach the top speed of and had a
pivotal front
axle operated by a
roller-chained tiller for
steering. The model was successful with 85 units sold in 1893, and was produced in a four-seated version with face-to-face seat benches called the "Vis-à-Vis". From 1894 to 1902, Benz produced over 1,200 of what some consider the first mass-produced car, the
Velocipede, later known as the Benz Velo. The early Velo had a 1L engine, and later a engine. giving a top speed of . The
Velo participated in the world's first automobile race, the 1894
Paris to Rouen, where Émile Roger finished 14th, after covering the in 10 hours 01-minute at an average speed of . In 1895, Benz designed the first truck with an internal combustion engine in history. Benz also built the first motor buses in history in 1895, for the
Netphener bus company. In 1896, Benz was granted a patent for his design of the first
flat engine. It had horizontally opposed
pistons, a design in which the corresponding pistons reach top dead centre simultaneously, thus balancing each other with respect to
momentum. Many flat engines, particularly those with four or fewer cylinders, are arranged as "boxer engines",
boxermotor in German, and also are known as "horizontally opposed engines". This design is still used by
Porsche,
Subaru, and some high performance engines used in
racing cars. In motorcycles, the most famous boxer engine is found in
BMW Motorrad, though the boxer engine design was used in many other models, including
Victoria,
Harley-Davidson XA,
Zündapp,
Wooler,
Douglas Dragonfly,
Ratier, Universal,
IMZ-Ural,
Dnepr,
Gnome et Rhône,
Chang Jiang,
Marusho, and the
Honda Gold Wing. Although
Gottlieb Daimler died in March 1900—and there is no evidence that Benz and Daimler knew each other nor that they knew about each other's early achievements—eventually, competition with
Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) in
Stuttgart began to challenge the leadership of Benz & Cie. In October 1900, the main designer of DMG,
Wilhelm Maybach, built the engine that would later be used in the
Mercedes-35hp of 1902. The engine was built to the specifications of
Emil Jellinek under a contract for him to purchase thirty-six vehicles with the engine, and for him to become a dealer of the special series. Jellinek stipulated the new engine be named Daimler-
Mercedes (for his daughter). Maybach would quit DMG in 1907, but he designed the model and all of the important changes. After testing, the first was delivered to Jellinek on 22 December 1900. Jellinek continued to make suggestions for changes to the model and obtained good results racing the automobile in the next few years, encouraging DMG to engage in commercial production of automobiles, which they did in 1902. Benz countered with
Parsifal, introduced in 1903 with a vertical twin engine that achieved a top speed of . Then, without consulting Benz, the other directors hired some French designers. France was a country with an extensive automobile industry based on Maybach's creations. Because of this action, after difficult discussions, Benz announced his retirement from design management on 24 January 1903, although he remained as director on the Board of Management through its merger with DMG in 1926 and, remained on the board of the new Daimler-Benz corporation until his death in 1929. Benz's sons Eugen and Richard left Benz & Cie. in 1903, but Richard returned to the company in 1904 as the designer of passenger vehicles. That year, sales of Benz & Cie. reached 3,480 automobiles, and the company remained the leading manufacturer of automobiles. Along with continuing as a director of Benz & Cie., Benz founded another company,
C. Benz Söhne, (with his son Eugen and closely held within the family), a privately held company for manufacturing automobiles. The brand name used the first initial of Benz's first name, "Carl".
Blitzen Benz In 1909, the
Blitzen Benz was built in Mannheim by Benz & Cie. The bird-beaked vehicle had a 21.5-liter (1312ci), engine, and on 9 November 1909 in the hands of
Victor Hémery of France, the
land speed racer at
Brooklands, set a record of , said to be "faster than any plane, train, or automobile" at the time, a record that was not exceeded for ten years by any other vehicle. It was transported to several countries, including the United States, to establish multiple records of this achievement. ==Benz Söhne, 1906–1923==