DMG Mercedes Simplex

Date	Location	Driver	Driver Country	Vehicle	Power	Speed over 1 Km	Speed over 1 Mile	Comments
May 25, 1904	Ostend, Belgium	Pierre de Caters	Belgium	DMG Mercedes Simplex 4 - cylinder inline	IC	97.25 mph (156.50 km/h)

The Mercedes Simplex was an automobile produced from 1902-09 by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG, Daimler Motor Society, a predecessor of Daimler-Benz and Daimler-Chrysler). It continued the use of the Mercedes name as the brand of DMG, rather than Daimler.

Simplex was derived from a version made specifically to beat the land speed record. This car was able to assert itself twice: the first time was at the beginning of 1904, when the U.S. WK Vanderbilt looked at the record 148.510 km / h at Daytona Beach. After that record, in the month of March , was beaten shortly after by a French pilot, the Simplex 90PS (this was the name of Mercedes-record) found success: the 25 May 1904 in Ostend ( Belgium ), a Simplex 90PS driven by Pierre de Caters established the world speed record at 156.5 darting km / h.

The Simplex 90PS was equipped with a 11.9-liter engine well, can precisely deliver an output of 90 hp. The speeds reached at the time were of the highest level if we consider the time, although today they are limited to a normal vehicle.

Baron Pierre de Caters (third place) in his 90 hp Mercedes racing car in the fifth Gordon Bennett race in the Taunus hills, 1904. Source: Daimler AG

The famous Belgian car rider Pierre de Caters at the wheel of his Mercedes during the Gordon Bennett Cup in 1904. The race was held at the Taunus and the circulation Caters earning his third.