1899 Mercedes "Phoenix"

In 1894, while working from temporary premises in the unused Hermann Hotel in Cannstatt, Gottlieb Daimler, his son Paul, and Wilhelm Maybach designed the Phoenix engine.
It amazed the automobile world with four cylinders placed vertical and parallel (a first for an automobile engine), camshaft-operated exhaust valves, spray-nozzle carburetor (patented by Maybach in 1893) and general improvements in the belt-drive system
Production of this engine which was put into cars, trucks, and boats became DMG's main product until the Mercedes car of 1902.
The Phoenix won the first car-race in history, The Paris to Rouen 1894, in the petrol engine category, even beating some steam-cars.