Mercedes-Benz W08

The Mercedes-Benz W08 was a large luxury car produced by Daimler-Benz. It was introduced in Autumn 1928, as Mercedes-Benz's first eight-cylinder passenger car. Also known by various “type numbers”, it remained in production with various modifications and upgrades until the later summer of 1939, the longest lived Mercedes-Benz model of the 1920s and 1930s.

Typ Nürburg 460 (1928–1929)

The W08 “Typ Nürburg 460” was developed by Ferdinand Porsche, who had transferred to Daimler from the firm’s Austrian affiliate in 1923. Porsche was the board member with responsibility for new product development. The company’s objective with the first eight cylinder Mercedes-Benz was to come up with a serious competitor to the Horch 8, and Porsche’s work on the new car appears to have been very rushed. The result was a car with a traditional “overslung” (“Hochbett”) chassis with the longitudinal chassis members directly above the axles, at a time when newer designs increasingly favored “underslung” (“Tiefbett”) chassis layouts on which the axles sat directly above the load bearing chassis beams. The 1928 Mercedes-Benz W08 therefore looked unfashionably tall even at the time of its launch.

The engine was a 4,622cc straight-8 side-valve unit for which maximum output was given as 80 PS (59 kW; 79 hp) at 3,400 rpm which translated into a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). The wheels were suspended from rigid axles supported by semi-elliptical leaf springs at the front and at the back.