Article by Graham Robson
Photography courtesy of Daimler Archives
Encapsulating the achievements of Mercedes-Benz in the 30 years covered here is impossible without having to summarize, or even ignore, whole chunks of the brand’s development. We will all have to fasten our seat belts, and hold on tight, to realise what happened in those exciting times.
You want proof ? Okay – how does one analyze the New Generation models, the development of entirely new-generation V-8 engines, the design of sensational Wankel-engined C111 coupes, the appearance of twin-overhead camshaft engines, 5-cylinder (yes five-cylinder) diesel engines, the huge investment in a new small, W201 range, and the big impact made by the arrival of the W113, then the W107, roadsters and coupes, all in four pages?
Oh yes, and the launch of the W100 – the legendary 600 – flagships, the surge of the S-Class, the arrival of the original G-Wagon four-wheel-drive range, the appearance of the first of the 190E 2.3-16s, the wide-ranging development of the mid-size wagons, and more, and more. So, you will now excuse me while I lie down and recover from that briefest of trawls through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
The expansion was wide-ranging, all over the world. In this issue (pages 42-47) Karl Ludvigsen has ably described how Mercedes-Benz got established, and grew, in North America. So also did the brand develop an enormous presence in Europe, in the Far East, but also in Africa and South America too. A marque which had virtually been unknown outside Europe in 1950 was a world-wide player by 1980 – and this grip on many markets has never wavered since then.
New Technology in the 1960s
I’ll begin with the arrival of mass-market fuel-injected models – the W111/W112 finback sedans, and the coupes and cabriolets with which they shared chassis – that built on what M-B had already proved with the 300SL roadsters and coupes, moving swiftly on to the appearance of two new families of V-8 engines. Those V-8s might not sound all that earth-shatteringly modern to Americans who were already used to buying such Detroit-inspired machinery from every domestic Main Street motor trader but, believe me, in Europe the launch of a new V-8 engine was still a very big deal. It was typical of Mercedes-Benz that the original versions (200 horsepower from 3.5 liters, and 250 horsepower from 6.3 liters) were very lightly tuned – but just look how much more eventually came along, how many different models used them, and how much the company came to rely on them.
All of which tended to overshadow the importance of the W100 massive limousines, new in 1963, which were hand-built slowly and carefully in an 18-year career, and eventually used by almost every head of state and top tycoon in the Third World. The engineers in Stuttgart had set out to beat anything that could be done by companies like Rolls-Royce and Cadillac – and achieved it with ease. So, maybe this was never a profitable enterprise but – so what? It had more impact than the building of a million identical smaller models.
So, too, did the magnificent (but ultimately short-lived) C111 coupe project, which I discussed in The Star, November-December 2009. It was first seen in 1969, when the Wankel rotary engine was thought to have a great future. It was typical of the company’s technical bravery that it embraced this new engine technology, and immediately made it work better than anyone else -- but what a pity that the realities of soaring fuel prices, and of more pressing projects within the company then obliged the company to cancel the further development work. Would such an expensive and on-the-edge project car have been a seller? Well, consider the impact of Bugatti’s Veyron, and McLaren’s F1 road car of later years, then decide... .
Nothing, on the other hand, was ever going to delay the launch of the new, smaller range of sedans, Though the advertising agencies called the entire line-up “The New Generation,” to the engineers the term really only applied to the W114/W115 chassis. These were the first to use the new-type semi-trailing-link independent rear end, the first big suspension change that Mercedes-Benz had made in that area for more than thirty years. As we had come to expect of Mercedes-Benz, a multitude of different engines were introduced for this range, ranging from the 95-horsepower/2-liter “four” to the 185-horsepower/2.8-liter “six.” Taking over the center of the market from the long-running Pontons, sales built up rapidly, totalling almost two million before the next generation took over in 1976.
Sporty cars, however, got even more headlines, even if they could not sell in similar quantities. Nevertheless, the “Pagoda” models -- the first of all being the 230SL, which arrived in 1963 – not only took over a marketing niche from the 190SL and 300SL types, but sold in large quantities. The 230SL became the 250SL, then the 280SL arrived to provide maturity, and no fewer than 48,912 were eventually built. The style, of course, was unmistakable, but it took a real M-B fanatic to peer under the skin to identify the various building blocks -- engine, transmission, front and rear suspension, even elements of the platform -- that had been lifted from Mercedes-Benz sedans to make a very elegant and effective whole. It was in that way, rather than in totally reckless innovation, that the company pushed ahead so strongly in the 1960s.
1970s – Consolidate and Expand
There was more – much more – of the same to follow in the 1970s, and by this time the clientele in North America was truly wakening to all the different models proudly wearing the three-pointed star that could now be purchased. The main exception, of course (and it is only now, forty years on, that this balance is changing in the USA) was that the Mercedes-Benz’s incredible mastery of the diesel engine didn’t succeed in every market. Not for nothing was a Mercedes-Benz nicknamed a “Stuttgart taxi” by other, jealous, rivals ....
As far as the enthusiast was concerned, however, there was more consolidation than innovation at this time. Successful sedan followed successful sedan (often selling in quite colossal numbers), but there was little evidence of anything visually novel, or of exciting but marginal interest.
Even so, who could possibly ignore the next-generation W116 S-Class models, which would be made from 1972 to 1980? Predictable styling, maybe, but with nine different models in the one range (and three distinctly different types of engine), and total sales approaching half a million, who was ever going to complain? It was the same story with the smaller model of the period – the W123 – produced for a full decade and now popular with a generation not even born when the model was introduced. So what if the style was such that many mistook it for a larger car?
As with the latest S-Class, there was enormous variety – 4-cylinder gasoline, 4- and 5-cylinder diesel, and 6-cylinder gasoline engines, no fewer than 26 different submodels, and total sales of 2.2 million – plus the important innovation of an LPG fueling option, plus smartly-styled coupes, and an incredibly popular estate car version, the first such on a line-built Mercedes-Benz in many years.
Visually and in marketing terms, though, it was the new-generation W107 SL/SLC class roadsters and coupes which caused such a stir at this time. Introduced in 1971, and eventually to be built until 1989, they established a class to which all rivals aspired (and usually failed) to match. The company was so fanatical about the range to be offered, and the markets to be satisfied, that you could enjoy running an open-top car in Death Valley with the air conditioning taking care of the climate control, or an SLC in the searingly cold winter of Scandinavia, without the occupants feeling at all uncomfortable.
The W107 was, of course, enormously successful, especially in California where it was seen as the sporty Mercedes-Benz car to have for some years. You could have one with a 5.6-liter engine, or the “economy” model with 2.8 liters, with or without removable hard top, short or long wheelbase, fixed head or otherwise .... and all of them were creak- and leak- free.
1980s – Best Cars in the World?
By the 1980s, Mercedes-Benz did not have to scratch around for clients, or for new markets – but certainly had to look for new ways of making more and yet more cars. Nowadays, looking back from 2011, we can easily see why completely new ranges (like the modern A,B, M, and R class) have all now been developed, but in the 1980s there was an imperative to produced just one extra range – that of the “small” W201.
And here’s why. In 1980, the vast majority of the company’s private car sales – 345,000 units – were generated by the W123 class with the S-Class types backing up with 65,000 units. But Mercedes-Benz motoring didn’t come cheap – and countless clients out there were veering off to buy less costly BMW, or domestic-USA products instead.
Accordingly, in the late 1970s the brave Board of Directors decided to invest heavily, to add a third range of “small” cars to the range – small, that is, with a new small 1.8-liter 4-cylinder-powered model propping up a raft of more expensive derivatives. The C-Class W201 was born. Incidentally, the new car didn’t just use a new short wheelbase body shell either; in addition it had a novel strut-type front suspension, and a completely new type of multi-link rear suspension.
Although production began at Sindelfingen alongside existing models, it was always intended that W201’s permanent home would be at the Bremen plant in Northern Germany, where it duly took up residence from the end of 1983. Nearly 200,000 cars were produced in the following year, and the millionth example would be built in May 1988. It was a gamble which had paid off handsomely.
Along with the latest iteration of the S-Class, the steadily-selling G-Wagon, the perennial appeal of the W107 and (from 1984) the build up of the new-type W124 medium-sized sedans – the original E-Class – the company now seemed to have most bases covered. More important however than just being a multi-line manufacturer, was the fact that Mercedes-Benz was increasingly seen as a technical innovator, though with details such as their research into safety work and crash-test resistance, and of other features like anti-lock braking, where they were among the world’s pioneers, not obvious to casual eyes.
The company’s centenary came, and went, in 1986, when it was almost too busy to make a big deal out of the anniversary, and by the end of the decade other state-of-the-art features (such as twin-overhead-camshaft cylinder heads, four-valves per cylinder, four and five-speed automatic transmissions) were all beginning to spread across the range. Yet there was more – much more – to follow in the 1990s and 2000s.
Motorsports 1960-1990
Let’s never forget that, even though the company was extremely busy in this period, it still had time for motor sport.
The fantastically successful foray into F1 and racing sports cars (1954 and 1955) really belongs to the previous instalment, but we must never forget just how successful the company was in rallying in the 1960s (Eugen Bohringer in 220SE, 300SEs, and 230SLs, victories in Argentina), how a brief return to rallying in the late 1970s (including victories in South America, and in Africa) made headlines, and how the arrival of Cosworth-developed 4-valve/twin-camshaft engines helped the company produce race winning (eventually DTM-winning) 190E 2.3E-16 models.
By the end, of course, the company had also produced race winning racing sports cars (where the name of Michael Schumacher soon became prominent), and the first tentative moves back into F1 (with Sauber) would soon follow... .