140 years ago Carl Benz filed the most important patent in history and changed automotive history forever

Mercedes has honored the ‘legacy of innovation’ from automotive godfather Carl Benz, who filed the most important patent in history to change the automotive industry history some 140 years ago.

Many people credit the start of the automobile boom with Henry Ford, whose Model N was introduced in 1906.

But it’s actually Carl Benz whose genius mind first filed a patent that set the world in motion.

Now, 140 years later, Mercedes is still using the same formula to manufacture success on the biggest platform in motorsport.

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How one patent sparked the entire vehicular industry

On a summer’s day in Mannheim, Germany, Carl Benz sipped his tea and bit into his sandwich as he filed a patent for the first-ever automobile.

Not quite understanding that he would soon be setting a legacy for generations, the patent was for a three-wheeled vehicle powered by a single-cylinder engine, similar to how a horse and carriage would look.

But with a rear-wheel drive power unit instead of a pony doing the pulling.

The Benz-Patent Motorwagen is known now as the birth certificate of all automobiles.

Some two years later, his wife, Bertha Benz, made the first-ever long-distance journey in the Model 3, traveling 180km to her birthtown of Pforzheim and back.

With a double-pivot steering column and a manual gear transmission, the first car was born from the mind of Carl Benz.

Benz’s automobile group continued to operate into the 1920s, where it then merged with Mercedes and became the global powerhouse we know today.

But it’s the patent that carries his legacy the most, being the blueprint for every car that ever followed.

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Mercedes Formula 1 team reveals new concept based on the Carl Benz Patent-Motorwagen

Taking to X (previously Twitter), the team said, “29 January 1886, Carl Benz submitted the patent for his motor car, and the automobile was born. 140 years later, we still carry on that same legacy of innovation.”

The new Formula 1 car has changed significantly from previous years, as the ‘biggest overhaul’ of regulations in recent memory has removed DRS from all teams in favor of a new overtake system that encourages much smaller and aerodynamic cars.

But at the core of every car on track is the Benz-Patent Motorwagen, and we all have Carl Benz to thank.

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