Mercedes-Benz has constructed empires on pace and class, however in 2009 they tried one thing fully totally different: the F-Cell Roadster Idea. Over 150 trainees on the Sindelfingen plant labored collectively to develop this one-of-a-kind automobile, which highlighted the automobile’s tough origins. It was a bridge between ages; it hit the German roads to not set up data, however to observe within the footsteps of Bertha Benz, the woman who demonstrated that vehicles may go lengthy distances.
Bertha Benz’s story is throughout city; in 1888, she took her husband Karl’s Patent-Motorwagen, a slipshod three-wheeler with a single-cylinder engine producing lower than one horsepower, and rode 66 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim. She negotiated grime lanes and cobblestone streets along with her two teenage sons, stopping at pharmacies for gasoline and enlisting the assistance of a blacksmith to restore a damaged chain. That voyage, the primary long-distance car drive, remodeled skeptics into believers and spawned an trade.
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A century later, Mercedes engineers retraced a portion of her path, from Mannheim through Ladenburg and Heidelberg to a symbolic cease in Wiesloch, the place Bertha as soon as bought ligroin from a chemist. The F-Cell Roadster drove those self same miles in April 2009, its soothing hum mirroring her want. Dr. Thomas Weber, Daimler’s then-head of analysis, described the drive as a show of pushing boundaries, very like Bertha’s hatpin and garter elastic fixes.
This is likely one of the few ideas that mixes yesterday’s simplicity with tomorrow’s clear goals. The Roadster’s physique consists of fiberglass and designed after Formulation One items; it’s low and open, uncovered to the wind like an old-school seaside buggy. Massive spoked wheels from the Mercedes classic playbook grip the bottom with deliberateness, whereas the body pays homage to the unique Motorwagen’s three-wheeler perspective. Inside, two carbon-fiber bucket seats wrapped in hand-stitched leather-based present simply sufficient consolation for 2, however the principle shock is on the sprint: no wheel, only a joystick to maneuver. This drive-by-wire setup turns each flip right into a recreation of refined pulls and nudges, a far cry from the tiller Bertha fought. Weighing in at lower than 800 kilos, your entire factor feels frail but purposeful, like a rolling sculpture created by apprentices who learnt as they went.
A hydrogen gas cell buried away within the again generates 1.6 horsepower, sufficient to get the Roadster “transferring” at speeds of as much as 15 mph. The acceleration is sluggish, however it’s applicable for the plodding really feel of the automobile. However the true spotlight is its vary: as much as 217 miles on a full tank of compressed hydrogen. Since there aren’t any emissions coming from the tailpipe, all you obtain is a pleasant breath of water vapor within the midst of that dirty tailpipe-strewn streetscape. Mercedes had beforehand experimented with gas cells, however this particular setup was a hands-on expertise, with a gaggle of mechatronics and electronics trainees engaged on it. The built-in hydrogen tanks are extremely small and allow for sooner refills than a battery cost, however filling stations have been nonetheless few even then. Given the world’s rush to electrical dominance, the Roadster discreetly means that hydrogen should still have a spot within the recreation, notably for the lengthy hauls Bertha pioneered.
The large wheels, which look like proper at dwelling on an early Benz racer, simply roll over present asphalt. In the meantime, the open cockpit permits the wind to hurry in and the aroma of the fields to stream over you, making the expertise extremely immersive. The joystick requires your consideration…however should you give it exact inputs, you get the feeling that you simply’re in on a secret that the automobile is telling you. As a result of it lacks doorways and a roof, every thing feels extra uncooked; the highway is there in entrance of you, and you’ll really feel it. Folks on the time thought it was too sluggish for the showroom, however in an period of untamed prototypes, the Roadster has a definite vibe happening; it’s content material to let historical past unfold at its personal tempo.
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