Mercedes-Benz 130

The Mercedes-Benz 130 was a small rear-engined car built in Germany in small numbers in the 1930s, one of three rear-engined models, with the 150 and the 170 H, that Daimler-Benz produced from 1931 to 1939. It was presented in February 1934 at the Berlin Car Show. Hans Nibel, the company's chief engineer, conceived it, inspired by Edmund Rumpler's Tropfenwagen, and it carried a 1,308 cc side-valve four-cylinder engine at the rear with a fan between the rear coil springs. It followed prototypes including the W17 of 1931 with a 1,200 cc four-cylinder boxer engine. Production numbers stayed low for all the rear-engined models, especially against the conventional front-engined Mercedes-Benz cars of the time.