Ready to Rally
Purpose-built by Mercedes-Benz to contest Europe’s most torturous off-road events, this 1938 230S is once again ready to hit the dirt.

By Gary Anderson with Gerhard Schnürer
Photographs Dave Gooley and Technical Museum of Vienna
 
Since the beginning of automotive history, manufacturers have engaged in motorsports with the dual objective of improving their products and promoting their brands. At Mercedes-Benz, these activities reached a zenith in the late 1930s when cars were specifically prepared for grand-prix racing, land-speed-record challenges, and endurance rallies.

The challenge of rallying

Placing more of a premium on reliability than speed, events such as the Brandenburg Rally and Deutsche Alpenfahrt were organized to test the mettle of men and machines on challenging courses that included both on-road segments on gravel and dirt roads and off-road segments.

For these events in 1938 and 1939, Mercedes-Benz designed and built a limited number of Gelände Sportwagens (all-terrain sports cars) to be raced by teams sponsored not only by the factory, but also by the German army and the national postal service. Our feature car for this issue, a 230S built in May 1938, is one of the two examples of these fascinating cars still in existence and was recently acquired by Gerhard and Rosemarie Schnürer, members of the Orange County Section.

When the decision was made to prepare a small number of cars for the very popular German rallies, Mercedes-Benz was selling large numbers of the 170 sedan built on the W136 chassis, and was in the process of developing the new 230 model which would be mounted on the W153 chassis. These production cars would serve as the base for three models – the 170VS, 230S, and 230SV – all with similar bodies, but each model equipped with a different engine.
 
Technical specifications

The 170VS housed the 1.9-liter 4-cylinder, single carburetor engine from the stock 170 models, producing 60 horsepower. The underlying chassis, adapted from the W136, was built around a tubular x-braced frame. For the 1938 season, 26 units of the 170VS were manufactured, followed by four additional units for 1939.

The 230S was built around the 2.3-liter 6-cylinder engine later used in the new 230S sedans, with two Solex downdraft carburetors, one equipped with a choke, producing 58 horsepower but offering greater low-end torque than the 170VS, an advantage in rallies. Possibly to handle the longer and heavier engine, the 230S had a pressed-steel ladder-structure frame. Only 19 copies of this version were built spanning the 1938 and 1939 seasons.

The run of all-terrain sports roadsters would conclude with the 230SV built for the 1939 season on the same W153 chassis as the 230S, drawing on the factory’s experience running the 170SV and 230S in 1938. This version used the same frame, but an improved 2,229cc 6-cylinder engine producing the same 58 horsepower with a slightly shorter stroke offered greater reliability.

Mercedes factory team posing in front of the works in 1938, co-drivers perched on the doors, ready to move around.

The minimal bodies of all three versions were similar, designed to meet the specific needs of the rallies. The body panels were formed of elektron (magnesium alloy) with aluminum fenders. Two seats were mounted in the center of the open car, with enclosed bodywork behind the seats that covered an extended trunk. The front of the car was quite similar to that of the mid-engined 150 Special Roadster shown at the 1936 Berlin Motor Show, but with a taller radiator on the 230SVs built in 1939.

The capacious trunk – coming to a rear point in the 170VS and 230S, and more square in the 230SV – provided adequate space for a spare front steering tire with standard tread, a rear tire with heavy lugs to handle muddy courses, and a large fuel tank. Moreover, the large trunk provided space to carry necessary spare parts and tools so that the driver and co-driver could repair the car on the road; teams were required to be totally self-sufficient from the beginning to the end of the rally.

The role of the co-driver in these rallies was interesting. In addition to his navigation duties, the co-driver was basically mobile ballast in a manner similar to sidecar motorcycle racing of the period. The standard posed picture for the teams shows the co-driver perched on the offside door, ready to lean out to balance the car on left turns. When additional rear-wheel traction was required, the co-driver would swing out onto the rear of the car, holding on to one of the reinforced handles mounted on the rear fenders and, if necessary, balancing his weight on a steel tube mounted where the rear bumper would normally be fitted.

Interior is spartan, but very attractive in its restored condition

Finding and restoring this car

Impressed by the example of the 230SV on display in the Mercedes-Benz Museum that a German postal service team once raced, an overseas client approached the Classic Center in Fellbach in 2000 and asked for assistance in locating a model that he could buy.

After a challenging search, Fellbach reported a find in 2002 – a frame and some ancillary parts that were claimed to have been part of one of the 230Ss. Confirming from the specific characteristics and serial number that the frame was authentic, the Classic Center undertook the restoration. Because so little of the original car still existed, this restoration required extensive efforts to locate original and period parts that matched the original specifications – many of the components were, after all, adapted from production vehicles – and researching original drawings to fabricate new components to original specifications.

Perhaps tiring of the ordeal, or reaching the limits of his resources, the original owner withdrew from the project in 2006, and work was put on hold. Then in 2008, the Classic Center decided to complete the project itself so that the car could be displayed during Mercedes-Benz’ 125th Anniversary celebrations in 2011.

The project was completed, and the car was proudly placed on display at the Classic Center in Fellbach by early in 2011. Soon after, it was shipped to California for display among the other historic examples of the marque at Pebble Beach in August 2011.

It was during that week that Gerhard Schnürer first saw the car. An inveterate enthusiast and owner of significant examples of Mercedes-Benz development starting with a Benz Mylord from the 1800s, Schnürer was attracted to this car because of its historic interest as well as its potential for active use in long-distance rallies and tours. When he learned that the roadster was originally produced within a few days of his own birth, he knew he had to purchase it.

Since the acquisition, Schnürer has shown it several times this year at Concours d’Elegance events – La Jolla, Muckenthaler, Greystone Mansion, Huntington Beach, and Dana Point – winning several best and second in class awards (he wanted to get the showing of the car out of the way so that he wouldn’t be reluctant to drive it on long-distance tours). We first saw the car recently at the Cars and Coffee event and then at the Classic Center in Irvine, California.

The Star had the opportunity to photograph the car in authentic action even more recently when Schnürer drove it at his vacation home in Oregon He was not shy in seeing how the car handled on dirt forest trails similar to the kind of terrain for which it was originally designed.

In our recent chats with him, Schnürer reports that he will have to make at least one change before the car can be run in events such as the Colorado Grand. Right now, the car has a rear differential installed that gives it maximum low-speed torque, but at the expense of maximum speed. Though the original specifications indicate the car was capable of speeds up to 80 mph, which would be marginally acceptable on modern road tours, in fact the car reaches its maximum rpm at about 65 mph. The answer is simple – and most likely was done depending on the nature of a specific competition – substitute the rear end from a production sedan of the period when highway speeds are required.

In the meantime, as we saw him in Oregon, Schnürer just gets a kick out of heading out into the mountains and using the low-end torque to put this one-of-a-kind vehicle into a sweeping drift on a dirt road.

In use, the co-driver could balance on the rear or either side for traction or balance.


Gerhard Schnürer’s Car
 
My wife Rosemarie and I immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1963 with almost no money, but confidence that we could succeed. As a young electrical/mechanical engineer, I had no trouble finding a job. Our first car was a 1953 Mercury Coupe that we bought for $300. With success, we were able to buy our first Mercedes, a 1973 450SEL. Then in August 1998, the collector’s bug bit us when we saw a beautifully restored 1956 BMW R50 motorcycle, the very model we wanted but could not afford back in Germany. Buying that bike was the start of the most satisfying and rewarding hobby we could ever have chosen.

In 2001, we bought our first classic car, a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 230/W143 limousine that I found on eBay. I had to have it because it was the same model and year in which, while riding with my dad at the age of three-and-a-half, I opened the passenger-side “suicide” door and was promptly ejected, landing head first in a snow bank. I managed to survive both the accident and the spanking that resulted.

Since then we have acquired a replica of Carl Benz’s 1886 three-wheel Patent Motorwagen; an 1897 Benz Mylord Coupe, originally built for British aristocracy; a 1911 Benz 50-horsepower Open Tourer whose original owner died on the Titanic; and various other prewar civilian and military automobiles and motorcycles. The most recent is this 1938 Mercedes-Benz 230S/W153 Gelände Sportwagen.

We show our vehicles regularly at various concours events, drive them in rallies and, most importantly, use them for our annual charity fund-raiser and antique vehicle show, held in December to benefit the U.S. Marine Toys for Tots drive. Our guests bring toys and donations, and we provide free German food and rides in our antique vehicles. Last year, we had 600 guests and raised $25,000.

- Gerhard Schnürer

Gerhard takes the daughter of his transport driver for a ride
           
Specifications: 1938 230S/ W153 Gelände Sportwagen

Two-seat all-terrain model built for trials and rallies

One of 19 built 1938-1939

Engine: 6-cylinder inline 2,229cc gasoline

Fuel system: Two Solex downdraft carburetors, one with choke

Transmission: M-B 4-speed plus reverse 

Power: 58 horsepower at 3,800 rpm  Top speed: 80 mph

Wheelbase: 107.9 inches    Length: 172.8 inches

Unladen weight: 2,469 pounds