Just before Christmas 1900, a 35 horsepower automobile made by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was delivered to Emil Jellinek, a wealthy Austrian businessman who raced cars as a hobby. Named after his daughter Mercedes, it caused quite a stir, with its pressed-steel frame, high-performance engine and honeycomb radiator. Over a century later, the company started by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz is now a towering global enterprise (merging with American giant Chrysler in 1998) and ...