A mountain course with narrow streets and more than 7,000 curves at the gates of Palermo on Sicily in Italy: this is the Targa Florio. It is one of the most popular and challenging street races, especially in the first half of the last century. In 1924 one lap is 108 kilometers long. Four of them are to be driven for the Targa Florio, another one is scheduled for the Coppa Florio, a total of 540 kilometers.

Based on the Indianapolis car from 1923, Ferdinand Porsche developed this Mercedes 2-liter supercharged racing car. Contrary to the regulations for the coloring of the racing car depending on the nationality, the Mercedes racing car was painted red instead of white, the official German color. This was supposed to prevent the audience from recognizing the car as an opposing make and throwing stones at it, as was customary at the time.

The car under Christian Werner won confidently. In second and third place in the same racing class: also Mercedes, with drivers Christian Lautenschlager and Alfred Neubauer. This completed the triple victory for Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG).

Mercedes is the only brand that brings all started vehicles to the finish. Whoever wins the Targa is not necessarily also the winner of the Coppa Florio, because the chances of paying the toll on the road and terrain on the last lap are immense. Of the 37 cars that started, only 21 reached the Targa Florio finish line after four laps. Only 16 more see the finish tape of the Coppa Florio one lap later.

For Neubauer, the 1924 Targa Florio was his very first race. As early as 1926 he became race director of the Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix team. Neubauer experienced his blackest day as race director on June 11, 1955 in Le Mans, when a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR was thrown into the crowd through no fault of his own, killing 84 people. Mercedes withdrew from racing after the Le Mans shock, and Alfred Neubauer retired.