Mercedes-Benz 380 S (W19)

About this model

A Mannheim underneath, but the suspension was radical enough to earn its own works number

The 380 S already had the 3.8-liter side-valve straight-eight when it was sold on the standard Mannheim chassis as the 15/80 PS. What set this car apart came late in the run: a coil-sprung swing axle at the rear and a transverse leaf spring in front, the independent layout Hans Nibel and Max Wagner were developing, and compression raised to lift the M19 from 80 to 85 PS. The works considered the chassis different enough from the rest of the Mannheim line to give it a number of its own — W19 rather than W10.

Twenty were built across 1932 and 1933, which makes it one of the scarcest pre-war Mercedes-Benz series chassis. Its real significance is as a rehearsal: the suspension tried here carried into the Typ 380 of 1933, and with it into the 500 K and 540 K that followed. The side-valve eight did not make the journey — the 380 got a new overhead-valve engine, and the M19 ended with this car.