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"The Germans love fast cars. In fact, they&amp;#039;ve made something of a national pastime out of building and driving vehicles at speed. This is not a modern occurrence, but is, in fact, rather deep seated, predating the Autobahn by several decades to the start of the 20th century. Mercedes-Benz knows a thing or two about this history, having invented, around then, both the automobile, and, shortly thereafter, the sports car. The vehicle we feature here is considered one of the first of this new genre. This 5 \u00BD liter, four-cylinder, 80 horsepower open car was built by Benz in 1910 to compete in one of the earliest German road races, the Prinz Heinrich tour, a competition for stock-style four-seat vehicles, named after the brother of then Emperor Willhelm II. This green meanie was recently restored by the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center for their collection in Stuttgart. Though the frame, engine, and axles are original, everything above the rails had to be fabricated from scratch based on period photos and schematic information. The result is an intensely visceral and sporting vehicle, which we had the opportunity to take a spin in on the streets of Amelia Island, Florida during this weekend&amp;#039;s Concours d&amp;#039;Elegance festivities. We&amp;#039;re glad for the experience, and gladder still that that we weren&amp;#039;t doing the driving, given the apparent learning curve involved. The Prinz Heinrich isn&amp;#039;t something you just jump into and drive like an SLK. A bizarre pedal arrangement, with the tiny gas pedal flanked by a quick-uptake clutch and an impossibly inactive mechanical brake, along with a painfully grindy running-board-mounted shift mechanism, made even a quick jaunt through the oak-lined streets at once thrilling and harrowing. This short video of the car being painstakingly started, and painstakingly driven, will give you a sense of the lengths to which early Modern Germans were willing to go in order to achieve mechanized motion. We salute their need for speed.        "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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