A legend turns 100: Paul Pietsch, racing driver and publisher, celebrates this rare hundredth birthday on 20 June 2011. Motor Presse Stuttgart honours its founder on this occasion with a classic car rally and regularity run with prominent participants that leads in two day stages from Freiburg through the Black Forest to Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz is supporting the Paul Pietsch Classic as premium partner.

The top-class field gathers on 17 June for the technical inspection at the Mercedes-Benz sales and service outlet in Freiburg, where the cars also will roll down the starting ramp on 18 June beginning at 8:30 a.m. The Paul Pietsch Classic finishes on the afternoon of 19 June at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. The first vehicles are expected from 4 p.m. onwards after the final stage also has taken them through the Daimler Untertürkheim plant over the last kilometres. Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Member of Mercedes-Benz Cars Management responsible for Sales and Marketing, who will be driving the Mercedes 170 DS, a landmark in diesel development, in the "Classic meets Future" category: "125 years ago our company founders invented the automobile – not the least of reasons making Mercedes-Benz the ideal host for a literally classic finish of the Paul Pietsch Classic. The drive through the plant grounds and the arrival at the museum will be a magnificent climax for the participants and many spectators."

A special feature of the regularity run is the "Classic meets Future" part of the event – classic cars and research vehicles jointly compete here for the best times in the special trials. In the "Classic meets Future" category Mercedes-Benz starts with two perfectly matched pairings: the legendary Mercedes 300 SL "Gullwing" of 1955 and the up-to-the-minute Mercedes SLS AMG E-CELL with electric drive, as well as the diesel pioneer Mercedes 170 DS of 1952 and the production-standard fuel cell car Mercedes B-Class F-CELL.

Further gems with the star on the radiator enriching the field of the Paul Pietsch Classic will be the following ten Mercedes-Benz models from five decades: 170 S Cabriolet B (1950), 220 Cabriolet B (1951), 300d Cabriolet D (1958), 300 SL (1958), 190 SL (1959), 220 SEb Cabriolet (1964), 230 SL (1965), 280 SE 3.5 (1969), 500 SL (1985) and 300 CE-24 (1992).

Of course, a number of top people will take a seat behind the wheel: for Mercedes-Benz racing driver colleagues Hans Herrmann, Jochen Mass, Dieter Glemser and Bernd Schneider will compete in honour of Grand Prix legend Paul Pietsch.