Mercedes-Benz 130 VB

The Mercedes-Benz 130 VB, internal type W 144, was the prototype of a front-wheel-drive lower middle class car that Daimler-Benz built in 1936 and 1937. Hans Gustav Röhr, who had succeeded the late technical director Hans Nibel in 1934 and had previously worked at the Adler works, designed it on the pattern of the Adler Trumpf. The compact car had a wheelbase of 2,700 millimetres and was planned as a two-door saloon. Eighteen test cars were built, with a side-valve four-cylinder boxer engine of 1,272 cubic centimetres and a square bore and stroke of 74 millimetres, delivering 35 horsepower, or 26 kilowatts. A four-speed gearbox with overdrive drove the front wheels, and the top speed was 100 kilometres per hour. After Röhr died in August 1937 all his developments except the Type 400 V were stopped and the test cars scrapped.