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Mercedes-benz Cm - 1969 | 
| The wankel rotary-piston engine was being hailed as the wave of the future when a two-seat mercedes-benz prototype sports coupe with this engine, called the clll, was presented with great fanfare at the 1969 frankfurt show. But the energy crisis doomed this fuel-thirsty model to no more than a historical curiosity. | Specifications performance
Top speed of 187 mph
engine typedrivetrain: Three- or four-rotor wankel rotary engine
displacement equivalent of 3-64.8 l power rating 330-400 hp transmission 5-speed manual
chassis: Coil-spring suspension, with antiroll bars; Recir.culating ball steering; Ventilated disc brakes; 2,425 lbs. |
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| | About vehicle
Fast and light
felix wankel had worked on rotary-engine designs at daimler-benz during world war ii, but mazda and nsu produced cars with twin-rotor engines before the mercedes automaker turned out its own tri-rotor clll. Designed along the lines of the ford gt40, the clll had a flying-buttress fiberglass body on a steel frame. Gullwing doors were needed because fuel tanks were built into each side. The fuel-injected 330hp engine took up only about half the space of an equivalently powered conventional engine and also weighed less.
noisy, thirsty and dirty
at least 11 cars were made in the clll series, many of them powered by four-rotor engines. One of these reached 187 mph and 60 mph from a standing start in only 4.8 seconds. But rotary-
engined vehicles were notorious not only for poor fuel mileage but also dirty emissions and intake and exhaust noise that required large mufflers. The rotary remains the car of the future and perhaps it will always be that.
Powered by a rotary engine, the mercedes-benz clll was
an experimental two-seat coupe that never went into production. |
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