Mind blowing

Text: Srinivas Krishnan
Photos: Deepak Tolani


Legend has it that not one, not two, but six supercharged Mercedes-Benz Type Ks were participating in a hill climb. Was it a measure of confidence or a means to annihilate the competition? Nobody knows. The year was 1926, and taking part in hill climb competitions was a sure-fire method of proving engine performance and handling prowess. Grand Prix racing may have more glory, but hill climbs were the ones that were tougher... and more dangerous. Rushing into unpredictable curves at breakneck speeds in some of the most rudimentary pieces of machinery, hill climbs could be the differentiator between the men and the boys, or rather, the living and the dead.

The drivers of the supercharged Type Ks were preening with confidence, after all they had the most powerful cars around – apart from victory, was there any other outcome of the hill climb?

Sadly, there was one, and it wasn’t anything to do with success. Apparently, all the six Type Ks that participated met with severe accidents and were never to race again. How come? The reason, in retrospect, was simple. While horsepower was never scarce, the rest of the car couldn’t handle that sort of output. The steering couldn’t take the rest of the car through those tortuous curves and the drum brakes all around did not provide adequate stopping power to the near two-tonne hurtling missiles.

A loss like this could have put an end, or at least created a difficult-to-recover setback to Mercedes’ racing ambitions. But we are not talking about an ordinary car manufacturer here, nor are we talking about an ordinary chief engineer.

Legends in the making
It was a tough but extremely down-to-earth man who took pre-WW II Mercedes cars to dizzying heights, by humbling competition and putting the fear of Germany into them. His name?

Dr Ferdinand Porsche. Dr Porsche’s list of achievements would read virtually like the technical history of the automobile, but for the moment, he was the head of engineering at Mercedes.

Unfazed by the Type K debacle, the fifty-year old Dr Porsche, with the support of the manufacturer, unleashed a series of dreaded machines wearing the three-pointed star on an unsuspecting world. Yes, we’re talking about the much superior and supremely capable S, SS, SSK and the SSKL Mercs, all based on the original Type K.

The lower and more rigid S (for Sport), with a bigger 6800 CC engine, twin carburettors and a supercharger with extra boost offered better handling than the Type K. It would go on to win the first German Grand Prix at the brand new Nurburgring track in July 1927, and a fellow Mercedes S would clock the fastest lap at the curvaceous circuit, a speed of almost 106 kph. This was followed by the legendary Rudi Caracciola’s win at the Ulster Tourist Trophy on a very wet day in 1929, defeating the favourites, a team of three 4½   litre ‘Blower’ Bentleys in his SS (Super Sport). Soon came the SSK (K for Kurz or short), which was developed with a short chassis and a larger ‘elephant’ blower – it rewrote history in hill climb races. Not content with success, the ultimate SSKL (L for Licht, or light) was launched – with a drilled chassis in an attempt to reduce weight – and it went gunning for glory.

Developing these brutal German machines was not the beginning of Dr Porsche’s involvement with Mercedes; it happened towards the end. His contribution started much earlier, having been instrumental in the evolution of the automobiles that spawned these legendary cars – the very Type K that you see in these pages.

Blow-by-blow account
The Treaty of Versailles may have prevented Germany from developing machines that would ultimately be used for war purposes such as airplanes and tanks, but the technical knowledge gained during 1914-18 was put to good use in automobiles. This was especially true of supercharging, where the Germans used forced induction in aero and submarine engines to pump up performance.

Mercedes, which was highly involved in racing and in aeronautical engineering, would be the first in the world to supercharge their production cars, starting with the four cylinder 6/25/40 hp 1500 CC and the 10/40/65 hp 2614 CC model. By simply depressing the throttle pedal further, the supercharger would get to work, increasing output by thrusting air into the carburettor.

But wait. If you thought Mercedes was a manufacturer who believed in supercharging just to give their customers the thrill of high speeds, nothing could be further from the truth. Their philosophy towards supercharging was more of a convenience/safety feature. As Mercedes in their sales literature says, ‘we wish to point out that the purpose of the supercharger is not so much to increase the maximum speed of the car, and consequently the number of revolutions of the engine, as to enable the car to quickly attain a high speed on the flat, and to take gradients at high speed on top gear.’ Yes, but try telling that to car buyers seeking out to be faster than all their contemporaries.

With the supercharger inside their vented hoods, the very character of Mercedes cars changed. A famous British auto magazine at that time commented, ‘...from a normal docile car, it becomes a greyhound.’ It was at this time, in 1923, that Dr Porsche joined Mercedes as chief engineer, and went on to develop a more reliable supercharged powerplant. And the resulting car was the 1926 Type K.

Merger of equals
A historic event happened in 1926, when two rivals came together – Daimler and Benz merged to form Daimler-Benz. In spite of the pathetic state of the German economy, the board directed Dr Porsche to develop a premium touring car.

Dr Porsche obliged and created the first car to wear the Mercedes-Benz badge and the very first one, post merger, to carry a supercharger inside the hood  – the 24/100/140 hp Type K. The doctor’s genius was evident in the engine construction – instead of the existing labour oriented engineering that used separately built-up steel cylinders, Porsche created a unitary cylinder block cast using light alloy with a cast iron cylinder head and a single overhead camshaft. Mated to a four-speed gearbox, the in-line six cylinder 6246 CC engine promised nothing less than 140 bhp with the supercharger singing.

The reason why it was called Type K is not for Kompressor but for Kurz, as the engine’s performance was way ahead for the rest of the body to catch up, and Dr Porsche had to shorten the wheelbase. The result? The world’s first genuine 100 mph (160 kph) touring car. In spite of a shortened chassis, the Type K would still earn the name ‘death trap,’ which might not surprise you.

Teutonic baritone
There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that prepares you for the sound of a supercharged classic Mercedes in action. This 1927 Type K four-seater convertible, which is part of the Vijay Mallya collection, is a prime example of what the firm from Sindelfingen could evoke, even in the early days of motoring.

On a bright summer day in Mandwa, off the Mumbai coast, this K shatters the calm, charging up on the empty road with its supercharger singing in a tone that makes your hair stand on end. It is powerful, it is furious, and it is awe-inspiring – such a pity that we can’t replicate it in these pages. It is a whistling sound that steadily changes to a combination of a pack of lions and wolves roaring and howling in unison. It’s no wonder that even sports cars of that era would stay away from these supercharged Mercs – for one, you had plenty of horsepower to be blown away, and then you had to contend with the frightening exhaust note.

No wonder when you’re seated in a Type K, a feeling of invincibility creeps in. Yes, there is a proud three-pointed star showing you the way, but it is so large that it actually hampers vision. The facia is a mumbo-jumbo of switches and instruments, and learning their various functions would need a thick and heavy user’s manual. The steering wheel, which dwarfs you, has two knobs on either side, one is for the adjustment of the gas mixture, and the other, to manipulate the ignition timing. Another concentric circle is a ring for activating the Bosch horn when depressed, and when lifted upwards, takes on the function of a headlight dimmer. An ignition button sets the cylinders aflame and what you get is the busy sound of an in-line six warming up for what’s ahead. The pedals are placed a little differently from the current arrangement we are familiar with, with the accelerator and the brake pedals interchanged. It is very subtle, but one look at the pedals and you know where the Type K’s priorities lie – the accelerator pedal is tiny whereas the brake pedal is reassuringly large!

With power going to the rear wheels, the Type K proclaims its eagerness to get moving. The gear lever, which comes to the right of the driver, has a gate at the base to make sure you shift gears correctly. In the four-speed gearbox, the overdrive is on fourth, and can crawl in this gear from 20 kph onwards. Dr Porsche’s engineering brilliance shows in the driveability of this car, as well as in the higher average speeds that you can maintain while touring. The in-line six 6246 CC engine makes a perfect match with the four-speed gearbox, assuring the driver of an elastic power delivery.

While 100 bhp is what you get when the car is puttering around the German countryside, a tête-à-tête between the pedal and metal assures nothing less than 140 horses with the supercharger compressing air and force-feeding it in the carburettor. And Twin Spark is something which only Alfa Romeo does not have the rights to, as this powerplant boasts 12 sparking plugs and a double distributor. There is also an autovac system in the car, which draws fuel from the tank placed at the distant rear end of the car and feeds the carburettor. However, when the supercharger is engaged, the autovac simply takes on the function of a pressure tank.

The ride is surprisingly refined and smooth. Semi-elliptic leaf springs all around do well to reduce the bounce, and the chassis, a long channel section with four cross members, seems rigid and inflexible. This makes itself obvious when the Type K is taken around corners at not-recommended speeds. No wonder that Mercedes makes a statement which comes closest to a disclaimer in their literature, ‘the driving of cars of the class and breed of the ‘Mercedes’ requires tact on the part of the driver because they are valuable machines, thoroughbreds, which will only give their best if a thoroughly efficient Pilot is at the wheel.' Amen to that.

The Type K rides on 6.00-20 inch wire wheels, which by modern standards, do not look capable of matching up to the high performance the engine boasts. Even then, the feeling while the Type K is in motion is that of solidity, all the more at high speeds. The size and the build of the Type K is no less imposing. Just a glance at the driver and the rest of the car gives you a fair idea of this monster’s proportions. The mesh grille is prow-shaped, to split any resistance from the wind. No, you can’t call this Mercedes a beauty, not with its gigantic dimensions and straightforward lines, but then details like the three exhaust pipes emerging from the hood would influence American car stylists soon.

Styling, yes, but can the same supreme arrogance these machines possessed ever be replicated? Never, not even by Mercedes-Benz today, leave alone any other manufacturer. You find the supercharger making a comeback after almost seventy years in the SLK Kompressor. But it’s so tame compared to the pre-WW II monsters. Rather obvious, when you consider that Mercedes’ initial aggression fulfilled a historical need to prove a point to the world.