Mercedes-Benz 170 (W136/191) 1935-1955

[Matt]

Successor to the successful Mercedes-Benz 170

65 year ago, in February 1936, the Mercedes-Benz 170 V was presented at the Berlin Motor Show, replacing the 170 of which just under 14,000 units had been produced in five-and-a-half years - the most successful Mercedes-Benz passenger car to that day. The new model had the same engine displacement but was more powerful and technically and stylistically more advanced - and cheaper than its predecessor. The success of the 170 V, setting in instantly, was therefore hardly surprising.

The suffix "V" ("Vorn" = German for 'front') was, incidentally, used to distinguish this car not from its predecessor but from the simul-taneously launched 170 H in which a virtually identical engine was installed in the rear. The 170 H ("H" for "Heck" = German for 'rear') was the more powerful and generally improved successor to the 130, the first rear-engined Mercedes-Benz car introduced two years earlier. Contrary to its counterpart with conventional powertrain configuration, the 170 V, the 170 H was unable to conquer the market; with a production volume of some 1,500 units, it played a subordinate role.

Not so the 170 V which was a big success in sales right from the start. In its very first year in production, almost 13,000 units were manufactured in Untertürkheim, almost as many as of the equally popular predecessor model. The 1.7 litre four-cylinder engine with side valves, a compression ratio of 1:6 and an output of 38 hp at 3400 rpm had a fuel consumption of less than ten litres per 100 kilometres, making the 170 a highly economical car, while a torque of 10.2 mkg at an engine speed as low as 1800/min created a good deal of motoring pleasure. The engine, flexibly mounted in two bearings, gave the car a hitherto unknown level of smoothness. The four-speed gearbox with helical gearing was synchronised first in the two top gears and from 1940 in all gears. People were enthusiastic about the car's comfortable swing axle chassis with independent wheel suspension on a transverse pair of leaf springs at the front and on coil springs in the rear. Not to forget its top speed 108 km/h.

[Matt]

Mercedes-Benz 170V #2

[Matt]

Mercedes-Benz 170V #3

[Matt]

Mercedes-Benz 170V #4

[Matt]

Mercedes-Benz 170V #5

[Matt]

Mercedes-Benz 170V #6

[Matt]

Mercedes-Benz 170V #7

[Benz_Boy_1]

nice im loving the black one in the first post!

[jimattsson]

Beautiful pictures, Thanks a lot

[Matt]

Pre-war car for a new beginning

• May 1946: Completion of the first Mercedes-Benz 170 V units
  
• Initially only pickups, panel vans and ambulances
  
• Manufacture despite severe shortage of skilled workers, raw materials and production equipment

Stuttgart, Apr 05, 2006

Production of the Mercedes-Benz 170 V (W 136 I series) was resumed in May 1946. Even though just 214 units were produced until the end of that year, this was enough to raise hopes of a return to normal car production. Initially, however, it was not sedans but pickups, panel vans and ambulances which came off the assembly line because the Allied Control Council had prohibited the manufacture of passenger cars for the time being. It was not before July 1947 that production of four-door sedans was resumed which were, however, supplied almost exclusively to authorities.

What had happened at the time was this: Just twelve days after Germany’s capitulation, the Untertürkheim plant – or what had been left of it – was provisionally re-opened on May 20, 1945. Some 1,240 wage-earners and salaried employees reported back. Initially, the occupying powers only permitted the clearing away of rubble and – in their own interests – the repair of their military vehicles in makeshift workshops. Production of motor vehicles was prohibited – and wouldn’t have been possible anyway for lack of machinery and materials. And yet, modest manufacturing activities were resumed soon with a rather mixed range, including a first vehicle again: a bicycle trailer.


A ray of hope was made out at the Sindelfingen plant: Press-shop I had survived the air raids with relatively little damage – and this facility accommodated the tools for the successful 170 V passenger car model which had been produced from 1935. If anything, this was the key to the company’s return to the automotive business. In November 1945, the allied powers issued a permit to Daimler-Benz AG for the production of pickup, panel van and ambulance versions of the 170 V. The company engaged in the preparations for production energetically, despite severe shortage of skilled workers, machinery, raw materials, coal and electricity. The first 170 V engine was completed in Untertürkheim in February 1946; the first complete vehicles, finally, came off the assembly line in May 1946, as outlined above.


In engineering terms, the “new” 170 V was a pre-war model – surely a good one but, in its design, clearly more than ten years old. Its side-valve engine corresponded to the state of the art of a bygone age; the trunk was not accessible from outside, and the bodywork, completely separated from its X-shaped tubular frame, was still some way away from the first attempts at self-supporting bodywork design. Nevertheless, the 170 was upgraded gradually. In May 1949 the 170 D with diesel engine was launched. In May 1950 production of the 170 Va and 170 Da began, their most important features being a larger displacement, more power, a broader rear track (since January 1950), softer springs, telescoping instead of piston-type shock absorbers, more powerful brakes, a trunk accessible from outside, air-deflecting panels on the front side windows, a steering shaft tube, and turn signal activation by means of a signal ring on the steering wheel. From 1950, it was possible to install a car radio, and reclining seat fittings and head restraints became optionally available. From September 1950, wind-shields made of laminated glass were fitted. The last refinements were introduced with the 170 Vb and 170 Db models in May 1952. Production was discontinued in 1953 – the 170 S had after all been available since May 1949 already. While it was based on the 170 V, it had been modernized so thoroughly that it can safely be described as a post-war design.

[Matt]

Mercedes-Benz 170V #9

[Ferrer]

Mercedes-Benz W136/W191 #10

[Ferrer]

Mercedes-Benz W136/W191 #11

[Ferrer]

Mercedes-Benz W136/W191 #12