The classic 1924 Mercedes Targa Florio was the first car to be redesigned by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche for Mercedes following the disasterous Indianapolis the year before. The modifications included a wider rear spring base and a much larger supercharger. This latter unit comes in when the throttle pedal is fully depressed. It doubles the horsepower to about 120 bhp, but there is a delay as the waste gate switches from the normal atmospheric to forced induction and at the same time the fuel system is pressurised to avoid the fuel being blown back into the fuel tank. The reason for all this is that on the Mercedes supercharging arrangement the blower forces air into the carburettor which is downstream from the blower. Most blowers are upstream of the supercharger and compress the mixture before forcing it into the cylinders. All this makes the car very difficult to drive as it has to be set up very accurately for a corner before flooring the throttle pedal and doubling the power.
This is the car that won the 1924 Targa Florio driven by Werner. It is the only Mercedes racing car to have been painted in Red (it is now white). The reason was that during practice the local bandits, who were nevertheless very patriotic, wre rolling rocks down in fron of cars that were not painted red (the Italian racing colours) and so Neaubauer, who was in charge of the Mercedes team, had all their cars painted red between practice and the race. The Alfa Romeo was leading the race on the final lap, but the engine seized 500 yards from the flag and the Mercedes went on to win. It was no fluke because the Mercedes ran in the Coppa Florio and won that also.
The car was restored by Gerald Palmer in the mid 1960's whilst he was working at Vauxhall Motors, having bought the car as a basket case from Arthur Jeddere-Fisher for £200.
Gerald was not impressed by the Mercedes big end arrangement which consisted of a huge geared bearing with planet wheels on roller bearings between the inner and outer gears. He decided that new con-rods would be better with plain bearings and a Bedford oil pump to supply the lubrication. The Vauxhall Apprentices came to the rescue!
John Sutton was very fortunate to be asked by Gerald Palmer to drive the car in races and he won several events at Silverstone and also at the Travering in Germany where Mecedes presented him with a silver salver with Daimler & Benz effigies embossed in the centre.
