Mercedes-Benz W17

The Mercedes-Benz W 17, also known as the Mercedes-Benz 120, was an experimental small car that Daimler-Benz built in 1931 and 1932. It put the engine at the rear, an idea that was fashionable in the early 1930s: streamlined, rounded fronts left little room over the front axle, while the full tail of the body gave plenty of space behind the rear axle, and an engine mounted at the driven axle removed the need for a propeller shaft. Tatra, under Hans Ledwinka, was pursuing similar designs at the same time. Daimler-Benz gave Hans Nibel the job of developing a small rear-engined car in 1930. The W 17 that resulted in 1931 was a four-seat saloon with two rear-hinged doors, upright front and rear windscreens and a 1.2 litre air-cooled flat-four engine in the tail that produced 25 PS. Both a squared-off body and a streamlined fastback body were tried, and transversely mounted inline-four engines were tested as well. The car never entered series production, and none of the test cars survives, although the engine of one of them is displayed in the Mercedes-Benz museum.