140 Years of Motoring History

In 1886, the first Automobile four wheeled “Motorised Carriage” – the motor car was built by Gotlieb Daimler & Wilhelm Maybach. Yorkshire Elegance will look back at the fascinating & pioneering history of Daimler and the cars powered by the engines they built, including the Daimler Motor Company, Britain’s first motor car production company founded in 1896. 

In 1900, Daimler cars were branded Mercedes and we will feature some of the earliest Mercedes cars which ultimately led to the merger of Daimler & Benz to form Mercedes-Benz in 1926.

W.O. Bentley (Walter Owen Bentley) founded the company in July 1919. After success supplying rotary aero engines during WWI, he turned to building high-performance automobiles, the first car being unveiled in 1921 – the 3.0litre which won at Le Mans in 1924 and again in 1927.

Bentley won Le Mans four times in a row between 1927 – 1930 and became synonymous with racing success and champagne lifestyle. Yorkshire Elegance will feature examples of all the seven models built in this era. 

Maserati was founded in December 1914 by six Brothers, passionate about engineering. They initially produced spark plugs. Alfieri, Bindo, and Ernesto built 2-litre Grand Prix cars for Diatto.

In 1926, Diatto suspended the production of race cars, leading to the creation of the first Maserati, the “Tipo 26” and the founding of the Maserati marque. A Tipo 26, driven by Alfieri, won the 1926 Targa Florio. 

The ‘S’ was created in a magical period for the company, shortly after the merger of Daimler and Benz. Chief Engineer,  Ferdinand Porsche built a powerful, yet versatile automobile – a true all-rounder, at home on the race track, hill climbs and providing exhilarating driving for the road. The signature engineering feature was its ‘on demand’ Roots type supercharger, which only kicked in when the accelerator was fully depressed, boosting power output from 120 to 180 brake horsepower for a few glorious seconds!