In Paris, in 1905 or 1906, Alberto Santos Dumont invited friends to watch a Mercedes car race.

• Handwritten letter from Alberto Santos Dumont to an unknown recipient.
• One sheet, two pages.
• 12.5 cm x 17 cm.
• In French.
• Paris, a Wednesday (mercredi, in French), no information about the date.
• Good condition conservation.
• Unique piece.

Paris, le mercredi

Dear friend,

Come to my house
tomorrow at 9:30
Lemgruber will be
there and we from there
we will see the
120 Mercedes and
Then maybe, we will
go for a walk

see you tomorrow

Santos Dumont

At first, this letter seemed quite enigmatic to me. Who exactly was this Lemgruber? And this Mercedes 120 or 120? In these cases, and as part of the pleasure of working with autograph documents, I decided to contact Mercedes in Germany, who kindly replied (translated):

Mr. Meyer,

Thank you for your question.

According to our records, there was no official connection between Alberto Santos Dumont and Mercedes-Benz.

He is probably referring to the 1905/06 Mercedes 120-HP races.

There is no other explanation we can think of, and being an inventor, these powerful cars may have been of interest to Santos Dumont.

Yours sincerely

Christian Biederstaedt

Classic Mercedes-Benz

Archives and collections

It's worth remembering that motor racing was still developing at that time. It is estimated that there were fewer than 5,000 cars in Paris. This new means of motorized transport and its advancements greatly interested aviation pioneers, especially the engines. The Mercedes 120 races, the most powerful cars of the time, attracted crowds in France, as they were the first competitive car races, the precursors to the current Formula 1 World Championship.

I deduced, then, that this letter could be dated 1905 or 1906, at the height of Santos Dumont's life, when he carried out – or was about to carry out – his historic flights of October 23 and November 12, 1906. He had an intense social life and associated with other pioneers and friends passionate about mechanics, both French and foreign. Among them were the recipient of the letter and Antônio de Avelar Lemgruber (1877-1920), grandson of the Viscount of Ubá, mentioned by Santos Dumont, another fan of motor racing.

An anecdotal detail, the precision of Santos Dumont: come to my house tomorrow at 9:30. The paper used for the letterhead is also unique. I have never seen another letter from Santos Dumont using the same paper. Last but not least, the large and beautiful signature, which also caught my attention.

Finally, we have here a very important letter, given its date, where we can clearly feel the inventor's enthusiasm for what he is experiencing, about to change history and honor Brazil.