Mercedes-Benz Auto 2000

The Mercedes-Benz Auto 2000 was a concept car that Mercedes-Benz presented at the Frankfurt motor show in 1981; three cars were prepared with different engines. It came out of the Auto 2000 project that the German federal ministry for education and research launched in the late 1970s for car makers, whose main aim was a large cut in the fuel consumption of passenger cars. For the first time three different engine concepts were developed for one research car: a V8 petrol engine using 9.3 litres per 100 kilometres, a V6 turbodiesel using 7.5 litres, and a gas turbine, the most ambitious of the three. The drag coefficient was 0.28, and all three used a four-speed automatic gearbox. Ideas from the Auto 2000 were later used in the W124, W126 and C126, R129, W140, W201 and W202 models. One car is displayed in the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart.