,
 |
| Not the most exciting part of our visit, but in this area they had a bunch of famous or celebrity owned cars. Like this 1991 500SL that belonged to princess Diana. |
 |
| Or how about the world famous Pope Mobile. I actually remember seeing this 1980 230G when I was a kid in Peru….a long time ago….we called it the “Papa Bus”. |
 |
| Please don't tell me you need me to tell you where this first gen M Class came from. The ML320 replaced the boxy G Class and was a huge sales success in America and Mexico. |
 |
| We now come to the “Safety Hall” of the museum. The 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed” by Ralph Nader put pressure on the automobile industry to invest much more money and time into the safety of their vehicles. Here you see the 1973 ESF 22 which was based on a 1971 S-class. This concept was designed to ensure the survival of a 40 mph impact and was used to showcase Mercedes-Benz' advancements in safety like anti-lock brakes, three-point seat belts and a driver side air bag. The excessively long front end had 9.6 inch bumper extensions used to absorb the energy of a crash. |
 |
| How data logging was done back in the day! |
 |
| A key part of crash testing is being able to gather and analyze accurate data. The technology available at the time did not allow for both of these goals to be accomplished the way it's done today. For starters the equipment needed to gather the data was much too bulky and heavy to fit in the crash-test vehicles, the weight alone would throw off the data. The equipment was also quite delicate and would not be able survive strong impacts. Mercedes Benz tackled these issues by creating this custom station wagon to carry all the equipment and travel next to the crash-test vehicle. With no wireless technology available the sensors of the test car had to be physically connected to the data logging equipment. If you go up two pics you can see the series of wires coming off the test car and into the station wagon. |
