When Mercedes Almost Went Crazy

the 1990s were a golden era for the automotive industry marked by some of the best sports cars and supercast relaxed emission regulations and an arms race among Brands like BMW and Mercedes to Showcase who had the biggest engine during the time when companies were Guided by the Primacy of Technology the engineering freedom of the time is somewhat unheard of today na a itself 12 was almost overshadowed by much more ridiculous engine ideas of the German Engineers the Mercedes-Benz W 140 was an Innovative Flagship as was customary in stutgart and its development began as early as 1981 initially slated for release in 1989 Mercedes was taken by surprise when BMW introduced the VF power e327 series prompting Mercedes to hastily initiate development of their own 12 cylinder engine this led to modifications in the engine bay improvements in the braking system and the creation of the m120 engine the 6 L unit produced as much power in kilowatts as the BMW did in Horsepower and that was just the base unit not accounting for the larger 7 L plus AMG variants very few people knew that BMW was toying with the possibility to introduce an even larger engine into the e32 not only by the engine displacement but also by cylinder count in 1987 BMW engineered a 16 cylinder 76 7 iil although the project was top secret information somehow reached people at Mercedes-Benz who were intrigued by the sheer courage of the idea it wasn't a matter of practicality it was a question of who was the true Visionary lunatic the top spec W 140 was known as the 600l and a new flagship model was meant to be called a 800 the projected 8 L engine was conceptualized in two different layouts the first involved taking the m120 engine and adding four more cylinders to create an elongated V16 no official information is available but some sources claim that there were 85 running prototypes of the V16 140 that is questionable as not one of them has been photographed had seen or even stored in a museum but who knows with the sheer length of the 16 cylinder cooling Hardware would probably be also awkwardly located similar to the V16 goldfish the other variant was even more intriguing an 18 cylinder that was based on existing straight six consisting of three Banks of cylinders a layout known as the 18 such engines are extremely rare with only a handful ever produced for specific applications like marine and aviation in this case Mercedes chose to merge the blocks at 75.5 Dee angles around a single crankshaft thanks to this blueprint sketch there are a number of interesting Solutions visible on the engine since the engine bay is a limited room large engines usually need to be incredibly well packaged to save space or fit in at least besides the eform mentioned bang angle the engine had a single crank shift and featured articulated connecting rods a master middle Bank rod and two slave rods attached to the big one thus requiring only a single crank ping for the three readily neighboring cylinders therefore the engine crankshaft would not be larger than a regular straight 6 one furthermore there are four chain drives tightly routed exhaust manifolds and a very space consuming intake system to feed all three Banks equally and efficiently the design also includes a single cam shaft B bank and side mounted Spar plugs suggesting a unit Source from the 2.6 l m103 two versions were mentioned a two valve producing 490 horsepower and 750 new M of torque and a high performance five valve iteration reaching 680 horsepower and 800 newon met of torque these figures remain impressive especially considering the era when BMW's top triam engine was making only 300 horsepower These Blueprints were presented to the board but the m120 engine already fulfilled all the requirements and expectations for temperament and refinement as say top spec configuration although nobody had a chance to hear such a beast in action the company was generous enough to preserve and share the blueprints with the public the sheer complexity and redundancy of the motor are undeniable but they serve as a demonstration of what the automotive industry was like in the 1980s and 1990s

Channel: VisioRacer

Views: 171,926

Keywords: VisioRacer, engine, sound, Mercedes, Benz, W18, V16, V12, M120, BMW, 767iL

Id: 4urThHzMyro

Length: 6min 11sec (371 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2024