There are four words every classic Mercedes-Benz enthusiast should know: unibody, ponton, Einspritzmotor, and cabriolet. They describe the four major advances by the company during the mid-1950s, culminating in the production of this flagship automobile in 1960.
A one-piece chassis and body, designed with collapsible components for safety in collisions, replaced the previous body-on-chassis structure in 1953. Replacing the multiple-form body design, the ponton—German for “pontoon”—body had a single clean styling line from the headlamp along the front fender across the door panel and terminating at the taillight at the end of the rear fender. By 1958 Mercedes engineers developed the improved 220 SE, replacing the earlier carbureted engine with the M127 gasoline injection engine—Einspritzmotor in German, and the E in SE—using a very early form of the mechanical pump-driven system by Bosch to feed fuel into the six cylinders.
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photo: Robin Adams ©2019 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
