Mercedes-Benz Type 180 Ponton
Article by Gary Anderson
Photography by David Gooley
The new Mercedes-Benz Type 180 brought prosperity back to Daimler-Benz and set new standards for safety in car design.
Success comes when you start with a good thing, and then make it better. Whether Mercedes-Benz planned its comeback strategy after World War II, built around the 180s, that way or it just worked out to be the case, there’s no question that the original Ponton was exactly the jump-start the company needed. As Graham Robson notes in his heritage article, the 300s established that Mercedes-Benz could still make prestige automobiles, and the 170s were good enough to get the factories going and produce cash flow, but it was the 180s and their direct successors that put the company back on the path to its goal of being the best car company in the world.
Safe, Strong, and Affordable
The key to that success was the unibody structure and the separate front subframe, perhaps more than the radical, for Mercedes, styling changes wrapped up in the body that would give the car, and the models it spawned, the nickname “ponton” for the flotation tank appearance of the fenders and doors when the car was viewed from the side.
Because of the structural characteristics of the unibody and subframe, Bela Barényi was able to incorporate in the new car the concept of a “safety cell” that he had developed earlier and patented in 1951. Inherent in this concept were the deformable subframe structures in the front and rear that would give way in a collision without transferring force to the passenger compartment. In addition, the high-sectional steel used in the side structure offered significant protection against passenger injuries in roll-over accidents. On this foundation could be built all of modern automobile safety.
The strength of the structure also provided much greater structural rigidity with much less body weight than the traditional body-on-frame structure of earlier automobiles. Not only did this dramatically reduce noise, vibration, and harshness, but it also reduced the cost of manufacture.
Accompanying this reduction in cost of materials was the cellular design of the front subframe to which the engine, transmission, steering, and front suspension could be bolted before simply being bolted into place under the body, reducing costs of assembly and repair.
The combination of these attributes meant that the first truly new chassis to come out of the Mercedes-Benz factories in 1953 would be safer, quieter, and cheaper to build certainly than anything Mercedes-Benz had ever before produced, and that would equal or better any other vehicles being produced in Europe.
That the resulting car was, to say the least, plain in its first incarnation hardly mattered to customers in 1953 when the 180 was introduced. For those seeking style and luxury, the 220s and 300s of that year would suffice, and the flexibility of the ponton structure meant that Mercedes stylists could easily come up with sleeker versions even while Mercedes engineers were broadening and improving the engine lineup.
The Pontons, with their revolutionary safety-structure unibody chassis – including models W105, W120, W121, and W180 – would be made from 1953 to 1962 in ever-increasing numbers. The Ponton lineup would be built first as sedans, then as cabriolets and coupes as well, with both gasoline and diesel engines offering power outputs ranging from 40 horsepower of 1.767-liter diesel engines to 115 horsepower of 2.195-liter gasoline engines. In that period, there were 15 different derivatives (including the first 220SE with fuel injection). Just as the 300S had allowed the creation of the 300SL, the Pontons would support the birth of the 190SL roadster.
Total Ponton production was 559,369, the most successful record for any Daimler-Benz model series in its history, and integral to the recovery of the company and its growth into one of the leading international auto manufacturers of the 21st century.
Showroom Quality – Twice
The car pictured on these pages as a showroom-quality example of the 180 Pontons was one of those that came to the United States, albeit via a circuitous route. The car was found by the Classic Center parked on blocks in a garage in Corona del Mar, California. When Center staff learned the garage was about to be emptied in an estate sale and the car was at risk of being junked, they bought it, literally yanking it from the garage because the brakes were frozen solid.
Through their research, the staff learned that the car had only one owner, a former Navy helicopter pilot who originally purchased it in August, 1958, through the military services program while serving as attaché to the American embassy in Jakarta.
When the pilot was transferred back to the U.S. to finish his last term of duty, he brought the car with him. Living in Corona del Mar, he continued to use it as his daily driver until he could no longer drive, then put it up on blocks in his garage, still starting it and running it regularly. His widow left it there until she died six years after him, which was when the Classic Center heard about it.
Because of the car’s absolutely original condition, the Center used it as a “before” exhibit for a while, then decided to restore it to illustrate how many original-specification parts could still be purchased from Mercedes-Benz. Disassembled by the staff in one day, as much a party and tech session as a workday, the car was stripped and repainted, then partially reassembled and used as a display for another year, before finally being restored to its showroom-original condition shown here, photographed on display at the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours.
Close inspection, and the experience of driving the car, tells us much about the automobile market in 1958 when this car was built. Because Mercedes-Benz was still an unusual, almost exotic brand in the United States, the car found its major markets in Europe and Asia, where middle-class families were starved for automobiles and the resurging prosperity could justify owning a family car. For those flocking to the reborn cities, a similar need for taxi fleets created an additional demand.
There is nothing fancy about the car, though all the materials, such as the cloth upholstery and paint, were of excellent quality, reflecting a view that a car should be a long-term purchase. The performance figures, indicating that it takes over half a minute to reach maximum highway speed, reflected the condition of the roads in this pre-freeway period in most of the world. Nevertheless, it is satisfying to sit behind the wheel, looking at the minimal gauges, and enjoy the reassuring sound of the quiet diesel rattle as one progresses in a leisurely manner down the road. But considering the alternatives, even having a car was quite a luxury for new owners when the cars were introduced in 1954, and the cars were still good buys in 1961.
About That Word, “Ponton”
There is no question that the name “ponton,” used by classic enthusiasts in almost loving tones, is the most common term for the series of models introduced in the 1950s initially for the middle-class market. The derivation of the term is less well accepted, it turns out. There’s no question that it refers to the flotation tanks (“pontoons” in English, “pontons” in German) used to support portable bridges in World War II, but the connection to the cars is less certain.
One reference work claims that a German journalist coined the term at the introduction of the 180 to refer to the crossmember in the front chassis substructure to which the engine, suspension, and steering assemblies were fastened. Although this crossmember might have reminded someone of a suspension bridge “slung between the wheels” as the reference book says, it certainly bore no resemblance to a pontoon bridge, where the roadbed rested on the flotation tanks.
More reasonably, other engineers believe the term refers to the overall tank-like structure of the monocoque chassis. This is certainly a possibility, but when one looks at the chassis by itself, it doesn’t have the clean, unencumbered lines of a flotation tank.
However, historians and designers within Daimler-Benz past and present confirm our understanding that the term more likely was coined by stylists, not engineers, and certainly that’s the primary meaning of the term today. As Hubert Lee, design chief on the CLS-Class project says, it describes the “two-box” design introduced with the Pontons, with the tops of the front and rear fenders and the doors forming a single line.
Even while Mercedes-Benz retained the upright grille and added feature lines over the front and rear wheels to evoke previous design traditions – two touches that persist today on the sedans – the Ponton design completely changed the direction of Mercedes-Benz styling.
SPECIFICATIONS
1958 W120 180D
ENGINE: M136 4-cylinder; 1,767cc. diesel
POWER: 46sae hp @ 3,200 rpm
TORQUE: 75 lb-ft @ 2,000 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 4-speed manual
WEIGHT: 2,535 lbs.
WHEELBASE: 104.3 in.
LENGTH: 176 in.
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 37 sec.
This article includes several views of the 1954 180D restored by the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center. The front view displays the iconic grille and the flared-in headlamps in the pontoon-shaped fenders. The 4-cylinder diesel was desirable because of its fuel efficiency. Trim features were typical for the period. Pontons were noted for their rugged longevity. Befitting the practical and affordable nature of the car, instrumentation is simple, and interior trim plain in nature. A second view of the pontoon fender line, with the feature line above the rear wheel to evoke previous fender designs.