MERCEDES - BENZ
THE 1960s
The 220b, 220S, SE, 230S W111
1959 – 1968
By Bernd S. Koehling
Copyright 2012 Bernd S. Koehling
Smashwords Edition
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CONTENT
The Cars
220b, S, SE/230S W111 (1959 – 1968)
Developing the six-cylinder fin-tail
First of all I would like to thank you for having purchased this book and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It is part of an e-book series that covers all cars produced by Daimler-Benz during the 1950s and 1960s.
The ponton series had been a great commercial success and in order to improve turnover further, one focus of the Daimler-Benz executive board was the increase of export sales. The biggest market was of course North America and it was agreed that the new models needed to have more appeal to customers in the new world. Thus the fin tail was born. As it turned out, the styling department around Karl Wilfert had already second thoughts about their new design before the cars were even launched, but it was too late. Nevertheless the cars were well received inside and outside of Europe. They were a further testament to the company's mantra that the best is just good enough, or as the editor of a Swiss automotive magazine once wrote: "They just don't know, how to build bad cars".
Not so well received though was the concept of one-body-fits-all design strategy. People balked at the idea to have an expensive six-cylinder car in their garage that looks very similar to its cheaper four-cylinder cousin. The owner of a 190D didn't mind of course to drive a car with the same interior and trunk space as the much more expensive 220SE or even 300SE.
The fin tail models were the first cars designed with Bela Barényi's safety concept in mind. As there was still very little experience with crumple zones in the real world it was agreed with the local police that whenever there would be an accident with a Mercedes fin tail involved, engineers from Daimler-Benz would be called to the scene in order to study the cars, so that the safety system could be refined further. At the end plenty of these cars would be bought by the company, so that they could be studied more thoroughly.
After the success of the 300SL and 190SL in the North American market, the fin tails were the first serious attempt by Daimler-Benz to develop this market further. It was initially a very rough and very costly attempt but at the end it paid off.
March 2012
Bernd S. Koehling
MB 220b W111/I (1959 – 1965)
MB 220Sb W111/II (1959 – 1965)
MB 220SEb W111/III (1959 – 1965)
MB 230S W111/IA (1965 – 1968)
Developing the six-cylinder fintail
When development for the ponton model started, management decided to launch the four-cylinder car first in order to slowly prepare its somewhat traditionally minded customers for the dawn of a new era. This time it was the other way around. The bigger ones came first.
On an unspecified day in 1956, Prof. Nallinger, visionary chief engineer and member of the executive board, called into his office Rudolf Uhlenhaut (head of passenger car development), Karl Wilfert (head of body development) and Josef Müller (head of engine development). They needed to discuss the ponton successor, he said. Two things had been decided upon prior to this meeting: the dimensions of the passenger cell (larger) and the time of the launch (autumn 1959). Everything else he said, he wanted to leave up to them. As the ponton engines were fairly modern, there wasn't too much to do for Josef Müller, but Karl Wilfert knew that the new car had to cater to different tastes, as export was a high priority of the management board. He and his team had quite a job ahead.
Catering to different markets meant, tradition alone wouldn't do anymore. It had to be combined with fashion and fashion in the late fifties was on one hand the exuberance of American idols such as Cadillac in 1958 and especially 1959 or Lincoln in 1957 and on the other hand the more pragmatic, trapez-line oriented approach of Italian designers such as Pininfarina, of whom Wilfert was known to be a great admirer.
Pininfarina's ideas of modern design could be found in the French Peugeot 404 and the British Austin A55 for example. Wilfert and members of his small styling team of just 53 colleagues met Pininfarina on several occasions, they also flew to the US in order to study more closely American design ideas. After plenty of internal arguments Wilfert was famous and almost feared for, his styling team lead by Friedrich Geiger came up with a proposal that did not only incorporate hints of American styling preferences but it also had sufficient traditional elements incorporated that even a person not interested in cars at all, would immediately recognize the car as a Mercedes.
As a nice side-story to his design efforts, it is known that Wilfert shortly before the launch of the W111 wasn't too happy anymore with his American-influenced fins and wanted to abandon them in favor of a more subtle approach. But machinery tools had already been ordered and it was too late for any last minute design changes. What he had in mind, he was able to show with the coupe and cabriolet, which were launched two years later. Although the W111 (and W110) didn't feature any of the fintail excesses, American designers incorporated at that time, the car became known among Mercedes aficionados as the fintail or finback Mercedes. Bruno Sacco, at that time already working in Wilfert's studio, had similar misgivings about the fin design and remarked in an interview later that that car should have never been built.
From the front and the side, both 220S (top) and 220 (bottom) look very similar
Next to the fins, which were called "Peilstege" or navigation bars internally, the car had more chrome and a wrap-around windshield and panoramic rear window. But naturally in a typical, somewhat subdued Mercedes fashion and not as excessive as on other German cars such as the Opel Kapitän for example. Elegance in Daimler-Benz terms meant and still means to be slightly behind actual fashion.
To accommodate the passenger compartment requirements, the car's overall length was increased by 12.5 cm (4.9 in), it was 5 cm (2 in) wider and the height was reduced by 4.5 cm (1.8 in). The headlight design was borrowed from the 300SL roadster and would serve as a design hallmark for Mercedes cars for many years to come. All of this gave the car especially from the front a very dynamic, powerful appearance. When such a face appeared in your rearview mirror on a German autobahn, you knew what you were supposed to do: "move over, pal!"
But the overall increase had other benefits too: the trunk was 50% larger than on the ponton model (which was already 75% larger than on the W187!) and overall visibility was again increased by around 35%.
The picture is different, when one sees both cars from the rear
To compensate for the reduced height of the car, the chassis and consequently the seating was slightly lowered. This did not only benefit the passengers, as it secured sufficient head room, it also helped to improve road-holding manners of the new car. Underneath the hood, the need for sweeping improvements were less needed, as the six-cylinder engines were modern enough to cope with the bigger, but not heavier car.