Here is Lewis Hamilton channeling his inner Juan Manuel Fangio in the summer of 2007, driving the monstrous, asymmetrical, wonderful W154 W196 of Mercedes’s only F1 world champion. When he gets into his new ride two weeks from now in Melbourne, he’ll have his first chance to join the club. (Photo by Vladimir Rys/Getty Read more

Add a cockpit to a Mercedes–Benz Silver Arrow and it turns into a speed record mecha with wheels. In October 1934, Rudolf Caracciola used this W25 to break the world record for the one-mile standing start. The same day, on a one-kilometer run, he became the fastest man on a public road, at 197 mph. That road, 30 miles Read more

The Sauber Mercedes C291 with a brand new 650 hp flat-12. It was built in 1991 right after the dominant C11. But the only thing it dominated was…a French comic book. (Image: Jean Graton/Daimler AG)

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