• Landmark development in the history of the automobile
• Delivered new to the UK
• Known ownership history
• Present ownership since 1935
• Many-time London-Brighton Veteran Car Run participant
• Running condition

Karl (also known as Carl) Friedrich Benz was born on 25th November 1844 in Muhlburg (now Karlsruhe), Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Benz enrolled at Karlsruhe Polytechnic when he was 15 years old and graduated in 1864 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

After developing a successful gasoline-powered engine in 1873, Benz focused on developing a motorised vehicle. Following disputes, he split with his business partners in 1883 and in 1885 founded Benz & Cie, Rheinische Gasmotorenfabrik in Mannheim with new backers. The business initially focused on stationary engines, but Benz continued pursuing his dream of creating a motorcar.

In 1885 Benz built a motorcar whose internal combustion engine was powered by gasoline. Benz's three-wheeled automobile, which he called the Motorwagen, could carry two passengers. Prior to building this car, Benz had invented several of its key components: electric ignition, spark plugs, and clutch.

Contemporaneously other inventors were trying to build or had already constructed their own versions of a 'horseless carriage', but Benz's work stood out because his car was constructed around its engine, as opposed to the approach of simply adding an engine to an existing cart or carriage. Benz was granted patent number '37435' for his automobile on 29th January 1886.

It was Benz's wife Bertha who demonstrated the feasibility of his vehicle as a mode of transportation when she took it on a 66-mile drive in August 1888. Bertha made the eight-miles-per-hour journey, accompanied by her two older children, in Model No. 3 of her husband's invention. Her actions garnered positive publicity for the motorcar, although Benz himself only learned of his wife's plans after she had reached her destination!

Before the turn of the 20th century Benz was producing the popular Velo, among other models, sales of which outstripped those of its major European competitors. The Velo was to become the first series-produced car and was manufactured in different versions from 1894 until 1902. This model made Benz the largest motor manufacturer in the world in 1898, by which time it had sold some 1,600 cars. The basic Benz design was to influence car production for some 12 years from 1888 to 1900, until the arrival of the new Système Panhard and De Dion-Bouton's fast revving vertical engines sounded its death knell.

Offered from the Caffyns collection, this Benz Velo left the factory in Germany on 15th August 1899 and was sold new by the UK importer, Hewetsons of Oxford Street, London for 180 guineas. The purchaser was a Mr Martin of Chipstead, Kent, who used the car until 1907 for conducting his geological research. In 1931 the Benz was purchased by the Morris distributor, Charles Baker of High Street, Tonbridge, Kent for £7 10s. When Caffyns acquired Charles Baker's business in 1935, the Benz came with it.

This historic car is understood to have taken part in 66 London-Brighton Veteran Car Runs up to 2008, failing to finish on only one occasion (in 1970, when a valve gear spindle shaft snapped). In 1952, this Benz appeared in the influential film Genevieve as an 'extra' on the London-Brighton Run. It last participated in the Run in 2008 since when the car has been mostly on static display.

The Benz is powered by a 1,045cc single-cylinder water-cooled engine with open flywheel and crankshaft, surface carburettor, and trembler coil ignition. The transmission consists of a two-speed belt drive plus Crypto (crawler) gear to a countershaft and then chain drive to the rear wheels. Brakes operate on the rear wheels only and steering is by tiller. All other controls are by hand. The car requires SBP2 high-vaporising fuel and uses around one gallon every 20 miles. It last ran earlier this year (August 2025).