1935 Mercedes-Benz 150 H

Engineer and editor of Motor Kritik magazine, Josef Ganz, drafted a stinging critique of Mercedes-Benz' new rear-engine 130 model shortly after its exhibition at the Berlin Motor Show in 1934. Daimler-Benz were probably unprepared for his criticisms as Ganz had been engaged as a consulting engineer to improve the new car's tail-heavy handling. His critique was technically correct - the car suffered from over-steer due the weight and rear placement of its engine - but his acerbic commentary won him no favors. Daimler-Benz became another of the growing list of companies Ganz considered personal enemies. This would, of course, come back to bite him.

Daimler-Benz fully understood that the 130 had a handling problem and strenuous efforts were underway to address this. Lead engineer, Hans Nibel, engaged ex Daimler-Benz engineer Ferdinand Porsche, to assist. Porsche made some suggestions but despite three generations of improvements, the car was never able to fully resolve its tail-heaviness.

In Ganz' critique, he had expressed the opinion that any vehicle with an 'outboard' engine placement (i.e., behind the rear axle), would be inherently unstable. Ganz instead expressed the view that the best placement of the engine was ahead of the axle, i.e., mid-engine. This suited Ganz' particular view of the ideal 'kleinstwagen' (small car), which was limited to only two seats. All other companies exploring the rear-engine, small car concept, rejected this idea as impractical. Ganz would press on with this view regardless right through into the 1950s, resulting in inevitable failure.

Josef Ganz' last throw of the two-seater volkswagen, the Swiss-built Rapid volkswagen of the late 1940s. In their 1933 review of the Standard Superior, the editors of Das Motorrad identified the two-seater small car as an automotive dead-end - in the first paragraph! https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2022/08/1933-standard-superior-road-test-das.html.

The two-seater small car may have been a dead-end, but Daimler-Benz believed a mid-engine two-seater sportscar could find a market. The 1.3 litre engine was bored out to 1.5 litres, fitted with overhead valves and twin carburetors, delivering 55 hp. The engine and transmission was turned 180 degrees and mounted on the tube chassis ahead of the rear axles, which improved the weight distribution.

Highly streamlined coupe bodies were modeled for the project. Several experimental bodies were ordered for trials.



This sleek streamlined body was trialed but would not go into production.

After finalizing the body styling, four bodies were ordered. The Mercedes works team successfully tested the new sports coupes in the 2000 Kilometer endurance race in July 1934, where they won four gold medals. One of the driving team would go on to great things on the race circuit - Hermann Lang - behind the wheel of the Auto Union Type C and D.

Despite competition success in the 2000 Kilometer Race, Mercedes-Benz opted not proceed with the Sports Coupe after only six cars were ever built. All would eventually end up being scrapped. Instead, the 150 H chassis was fitted with a streamlined roadster body and unveiled at the 1935 Berlin Motor Show.

The 150 H roadster never went into mass production and only four examples were ever built. One survives and is in the Mercedes Benz museum.

While the 150 Sports Coupe and Roadster proved to be dead-ends themselves, they did have one very important long-lasting impact. When Ferdinand Porsche was granted the contract to build three volkswagen (V3) prototypes for testing in 1935, Daimler-Benz was instructed to build the two sedans (Porsche would build the cabriolet). The 150 H Sports Coupes and the various test bodies were still in the Daimler-Benz yard and would be used as a template for the body that would eventually become the world beating Volkswagen.

The Origin of the Volkswagen: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2012/03/volkswagen-world-beating-peoples-car.html

Mercedes-Benz 130: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1934-mercedes-benz-130.html
Mercedes-Benz 170H: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1936-mercedes-benz-170-h.html
Mercedes Classics History: http://mercedesclasicos.com/19_mercedes_benz_130h-170h.html

1936 Mercedes-Benz 170 H

After the introduction of the Mercedes-Benz 130 model in 1934, Daimler-Benz engineers had been scrambling to improve its handling and reduce its tendency to over-steer in corners. The car's instability was the direct result of the choice of an upright water-cooled four-cylinder engine mounted behind the axles, when the car had originally been designed for a flat-four air-cooled motor. The 130 model went through three generations of suspension improvements before the model was retired in April 1936, after 4,298 cars had left the factory.

In February 1936, the completely redesigned Mercedes-Benz 170H was unveiled at the Berlin Motor Show. The new car benefited from the lessons learned from the 130, with redesigned suspension, double acting shock absorbers on the rear, a larger, better engine and overall better fittings. Streamlining was much improved over the somewhat angular 130. Motoring journalists praised the new car for its innovation and improved handling, but over-steer remained a problem for the unwary driver. Despite all the improvements, the 170H was never able to secure its market and only 1,507 cars were built before the model was withdrawn in October 1939.








1934 Mercedes-Benz 130 Brochure: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1934-mercedes-benz-130.html
1935 Mercedes-Benz 150 H: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1935-mercedes-benz-150-h.html
Mercedes Classics History: http://mercedesclasicos.com/19_mercedes_benz_130h-170h.html

1934 Mercedes-Benz 130

1934 in Germany was the year that rear-engined streamlined cars truly hit the headlines. For several years prior, commencing from 1930, many engineers across Europe were striving to be the first to bring to the market a rear-engined budget car "for the people." These days this complex story has been dumbed down into a moronic argument over whether Ferdinand Porsche at KdF (later Volkswagen) stole the rear-engine concept from Hans Ledwinka at Tatra. It is an entirely fake dispute driven by modern conceit and ignorance.

The mid-1930s interest in rear-engines was a typically German response to the challenges of mass production. In the US, Ford and other car makers reduced the unit price of motor cars by mass production and automation, supported by finance on easy credit terms. In Europe, where worker wages were much lower, car makers had completely ignored the mass market, focusing exclusively on the well-to-do. Cars were built in small batches, in relatively small factories, by technically skilled artisans. Implementing a mass production would have required many companies to completely restructure their operations and build entirely new factories. The capital outlay alone would put them out of business. JS Rasmussen of DKW, Germany's leading motorcycle manufacturer, implemented a moving production line for motorcycle production, but the DKW auto plant in Chemnitz - despite some automation - remained disfunctional, with chassis built in a plant outside of the city, engines built in Zschopau, and bodies shipped by train from Spandau in Berlin, 260 kilometres away. And DKW was one of the most efficient plants in Germany in 1932!

And so, if mass production was not an option, then cost reduction must be achieved through engineering. Reducing the size of the vehicle was one option. This was attempted by both Opel and Ford with some degree of success, although there were many complaints from the engineering community that down-scaling engines, chassis and gearboxes compromised both handling and performance. Creative engineers looked at the challenge from an entirely different perspective - utilizing a compact drive train where the engine directly drove the wheels removed the need for a transmission and differential. The next question was placement - if the drive train was to mounted in the front, the driven axles would need to be steerable; if mounted in the rear, the axles would not need to be steered. Either placement required independently suspended half axles.

DKW pursued the first option with their Front series of budget cars in 1931. They proved to be a great success but front-wheel drive involved additional engineering complexity and was not widely adopted at the time. Tractor maker, Hanomag, adopted rear-engine placement with their Komissbrot PS2/15 in 1924. Although the car was extremely basic and had a solid rear axle, it handled surprisingly well despite only being powered by a 400cc single cylinder four-stroke motor. It was a pioneer of a new engineering movement across Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, with multiple engineers experimenting with the concept, which proved to be more challenging than first realized.

Daimler-Benz was one these pioneering companies. Under the brand name, Mercedes-Benz, the company specialized in conventional luxury cars and commercial vehicles. Daimler-Benz approached the budget market as most other established car makers, scaling down one of their larger models and stripping features. This resulted in their mid-range 170 sedan of 1931, which apart from introducing swing rear axles, was otherwise conventional. In parallel, a design team under Hans Nibel and Max Wagner, were working on a rear-engine small car. Nibel and Wagner bought with them experience from Daimler-Benz' mid-engine race car program of the late 1920s. Ferdinand Porsche, had worked on that project and he would take the lessons he learnt their to Auto-Union for their mid-engine race program in 1935.

The first fruits of this project were not promising, being described as having "all the charm of a coal box." This small car showcased radical and modern features, such as a central tube chassis and independent four-wheel suspension, but Daimler-Benz was not prepared to sully its image on this strange variant. Nibel and Wagen returned to the drawing board and completely revised the car.

Gone was the box-like body in favor of radical streamlining. Several different bodies steel bodies were constructed for wind tunnel and road tests. The new car also received a newly designed 1.2 litre flat-four air-cooled engine, but this proved to be problematic in testing. Nevertheless, the new small car showed promise and plans were made to go into production. The flat-four engine however would need to be replaced. A conventional 1.3 litre water cooled engine generating 26 horsepower was substituted, but this immediately caused problems.

With a 35/65 front to rear weight differential, the use of the larger and heavier water cooled engine threw out the cars handling, causing serious over-steer in corners. Changes were made to the front and rear suspension, but motoring writers expressed concern. Both Ferdinand Porsche and rear-engine advocate, Josef Ganz, were consulted at various times to improve handling. Ultimately, handling was much improved in the second and third generations of the car, but the Mercedes-Benz 130 - the company's cheapest car - would not prove the success Daimler-Benz had expected.

In February 1936 the 130 was replaced by the completely redesigned Mercedes-Benz 170H. 4,298 130 cars had been built when the production ceased in April. While the 130 had never been designated "H" or Heckmotor, this additional identifier was required to differentiate the rear-engine 170 model from the popular front-engine 170 V model. The new car benefited from the lessons learned from the 130, with redesigned suspension, double acting shock absorbers on the rear, a larger, better engine and overall better fittings. Motoring journalists praised the new car, but over-steer remained a problem for the unwary driver. Given the car's higher price tag - and for just a little extra you could buy a conventional 170 V - sales proved to be slow. Only 1,507 cars were built before the model was withdrawn in October 1939.

For comparison, the 170 V model (below)


More links for this period:
Origin of the Volkswagen: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2012/03/volkswagen-world-beating-peoples-car.html
DKW Streamliner: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/07/dkws-1933-rear-engine-streamliner.html
Standard Superior: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2015/07/standard-superior.html
Hansa 400: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2021/10/1934-hansa-400.html
Tatra Streamliners: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/2020/09/tatras-streamliners-yesterdays-car-of.html
Tatra and the Self Licking Icecream: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/2023/02/tatras-self-licking-icecream-cone.html
1936 Mercedes-Benz 170 H: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1936-mercedes-benz-170-h.html
1935 Mercedes-Benz 150 H: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/02/1935-mercedes-benz-150-h.html
Mercedes Classics History: http://mercedesclasicos.com/19_mercedes_benz_130h-170h.html

Mercedes-Benz 540K