What Is Mercedes-Benz Up To?

This is why you have to love the internet. There is no way this kind of information about Mercedes-Benz would have been as freely available 10 years ago.

When you take a look at this, you have to ask "What IS Mercedes-Benz up to?"

As you can see below, there is a brief description of our cover image, which appears to have a central seating arragement a la the original McLaren F1.

Taking this kind of setup into account, could this be a possible supercar in the making or is this more likely for an upcoming Smart product?


A passenger car with a transverse element that is associated with a vehicle seat and that has a non-deformable center region and deformable outer regions, is supported on respective ends thereof on associated body regions in the transverse direction of the vehicle. The transverse element is supported on respective ends thereof on associated side skirts. The vehicle seat is arranged in a vehicle center and is movable along with the center region following a crash-induced length reduction of an outer region facing a side impact force which causes a length reduction of the outer region facing away from the side impact force...

[Source: Espacenet VIA Ferrarichat]


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Patronus - 2/27/2011 4:38:25 PM

+3 Boost

"could this be a possible supercar in the making or is this more likely for an upcoming Smart product?"

Uhh, no.

This would be a crash protection method for occupants. It appears to be moving a seat forward or back within the cabin with a force applied much like shooting a marble from your fingers.

dumpsty - 2/28/2011 12:42:04 PM

+1 Boost

Right. Possibly a crash protection method/system for a smaller urban/city vehicle. This may lead to a 3-seat urban car similar in size to the MINI Cooper or smaller. This could suggest that it could be a variant of a new model in the smart car brand or for an A-class vehicle.