Mercedes-Benz is the absolute symbol of German quality and class brand that is associated primarily with expensive and luxury cars, although in the line of Mercedes, there are more modest models. And in the history of the company was extremely unusual cars — talk about them – writes “Popular Mechanics”.
Mercedes-Benz W 17 (1931). Rear-engined concept car developed as a “people’s car” (which later became the “VW beetle”). There were produced 12 instances, different technical elements, but in the series the car was never launched. None W 17 to the present day have not survived.
Mercedes-Benz T80 (1939). Record Streamliner developed for Mercedes-Benz Ferdinand Porsche. It was originally designed to set a new world speed record on land, but due to the outbreak of World war II, the attempt never took place. On the car stood a 12-cylinder engine Daimler-Benz DB 603 with a volume of 44.5 litres (!) — in fact, it was the modification of aircraft DB-601 from the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Since the car has been preserved and is in excellent condition, many insist on the high-speed race, who can prove that in 1940, the T80 would beat the world record, had the test actually.
Mercedes-Benz Rennwagen-Schnelltransporter (1954). Built in a single copy on request of Alfred Neubauer, head of the racing team Mercedes-Benz Transporter of the car, “Formula-1”. The truck has a streamlined shape and powerful engine, it accelerates to 160 km/h with a load (!) — this allows you to quickly bring damaged cars to the pits. After the departure of the team from racing in 1955, the Transporter for many years just rusting at the base, and then were cut into the metal. In the 1990-ies the car was recreated from photographs.
Mercedes-Benz 230 SL Pininfarina Coupé (1964). Design Mercedes-Benz have always stayed pretty canonical, and the company often turned to third-party design Studio. 230 SL Pininfarina Coupé was created on the initiative of Pininfarina designer Tom Tardos, and after its presentation at the auto show, the company received a number of orders for the model but Mercedes wasn’t interested, the car remained in a single copy, which eventually was bought by the magnate Axel Springer.
Mercedes-Benz C111 Design Concept Bruno Sacco (1969). From 1969 to 1979 Mercedes-Benz built a series of conceptual sports car C111, which are installed by experienced diesel engine, turbocharger of different designs and engines of the Wankel. The machine was not planned to participate in the race, and was intended for testing engines. Almost everywhere it is alleged that there were four cars, but really even before the official first model of the C111-I in a single copy was made the concept was developed by designer Bruno Sacco (in 1975 he headed the design Department of the company and will be in this post until 1999).
Mercedes-Benz C111-IV (1979). Latest and the strangest version of the C111. The car had a 500-horsepower engine and accelerates to more than 400 km/h — it was a study of aerodynamic properties of the vehicle.
Mercedes-Benz 190 E W201 Stadtwagen (1981). One of the most unusual concept cars Mercedes-Benz — conditional attempt to occupy the niche of compact and affordable cars. Basically, if you remove the caps, nothing will rodnite 190 E Stadtwagen with “Mercedes”.
Mercedes-Benz NAFA (1982). The concept of urban micro-car, only designed to run on small distances from home to work or to the store and back. NAFA length is only 2.5 meters, and in the Mercedes-Benz seriously thought about starting microcara in the series (later, they still carried out the plan in the form of a Smart), but the car could not “forced” to meet safety standards.
Mercedes-Benz F100 (1991). The concept car, which was sold to performance Mercedes-Benz family car of the XXI century. The driver sat in the middle, behind the pairwise housed four passengers. Many solutions used in the concept, subsequently found application in serial models of the company.
Mercedes-Benz EXT-92 (1992). Fantastic truck presented n the Frankfurt motor show in 1992. The main tasks were to provide good aerodynamic properties, as well as the comfort and safety of the driver. The description of this machine indicate the similarity with the famous and the earlier concept of the MAZ-2000 “Perestrojka”, but unlike MAZ EXT-92 — conventional tractor, without modular layout.
