Description
Author: Guy Jellinek-Mercedes, Hardbound, 319 Pages, ASIN: B000F9W98M, Second Printing, 1967- **Second-Hand book in excellent condition**
1896 EMIL JELLINEK travelled from Nice to Cannstatt, where he was met by a gleaming 6hp Daimler and driven to the newly opened Daimler Motor Works. He purchased one of these vehicles and in the following year he ordered no less than 140 of various models. In next to no time he was the sole agent for Daimler outside Germany; in fact it was he who gave the name of his daughter to all the cars which he bought for re-sale from the Daimler Company thus establishing for all time the world-renowned car which carries the three pointed star.
Later he was to add the name to his own and became known as Emil JellinekMercedes.
This most colourful, eccentric, and forceful character, bursting with vitality, attracted a considerable reputation throughout Europe. He was in contact with all the influential men of business of his day.
His connection with the Daimler Motor Company was most extraordinary. It was a succession of quarrels conducted on his side with a rudeness that was often outrageous. He could not get on with the careful, practical Daimler, but he had a life-long friendship with the great engineer Wilhelm Maybach. 'You and I' said Maybach, 'are the creators of the Mercedes'. Indeed, the vitality and imagination of Jellinek, coupled with the engineering of Maybach, created the prototype of the motor car which is running on our roads today.
Jellinek was a salesman of genius and he was determined that the Daimler factory should give him what he wanted - even if they thought it impossible!
He was quick to see the value of racing and keen to enter Mercedes cars in the great classic road races of those early days. The account of these races based on contemporary records makes fascinating reading.
