Project Benz is the independent Mercedes registry. Real cars, documented by the people who own them, each with a numbered file that stays with the car for good.
Every one of these cars carries a history: the engine that was rebuilt over a winter, the wheels tracked down across three countries, the reason someone kept a thirty-year-old saloon when every sensible voice said sell. Right now those stories live in forum threads that go offline, Instagram accounts that go quiet, and folders on laptops that never get backed up. When a car changes hands, the story usually stays behind. A few years later nobody can say what was done to it, or by whom, or why.
Project Benz is the fix: one place where a Mercedes gets a proper file. The spec sheet, the photos, the build log, the location on the world map. Numbered, searchable, and still there when the next owner wants to know what they are holding.
Live figures. They update as the registry grows.
Every car in the registry gets a numbered founding slot and a public dossier: year, model and chassis, the full specification from paint code to wheel fitment, a photo gallery, a before and after, and a build log that grows entry by entry as the car does. The first 500 cars take the founding numbers, and a car keeps its number for good. Alongside the registry sits the rest of the archive: chassis histories, every factory variant, buying guides, and owner tools from chassis decoding to torque values.
It starts with the Cosworth-era W201 as the flagship, with the R129 SL and W126 S-Class open and more chassis added as owners claim them. Any state is welcome: stock, restored, modified or mid-project. A car under a tarp with a story is worth more to the record than a trailer queen with none.
Three rules keep the registry worth something. Real cars only, filed by the person who owns them. Your own photos, your honest spec, reviewed before anything goes live. And the record stays clean: no advertising, nothing for sale, your email never shown. Project Benz is funded and run as an enthusiast project, independent of Mercedes-Benz AG.
Historical figures such as production numbers and race results are drawn from factory records and contemporary sources, and dated where they appear. Found something wrong? Corrections are welcome and credited. Reach the editor through any channel below and the record gets fixed.
Adam founded Project Benz in 2025 and keeps the archive: reviewing the historical and technical reference, curating the featured builds, and running the community channels on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Questions, corrections and submissions reach him directly through the garage and the channels below.
The goal is simple to say and long to do: the most complete record of documented Mercedes anywhere, kept by the people who actually run these cars. First the 500 founding cars. Then chassis by chassis, country by country, until looking up a car on Project Benz is just what you do when one changes hands. If you own one of these cars, you are holding a piece of that record. File it.
Put your Mercedes on the record, or reach the editor on any of the project channels.
