Pre War

Description

When reading about significant Mercedes Benz designs, one cannot escape the name Friedrich Geiger. Those who are students of the Classic era most notably, but few realise that his time started before the second world war and that the 540K is one of his most notable pieces of work.

The 540K was a development of the 500, which in turn was an evolution of the famous SSK. The 5.4 litre straight eight was fed by a pair of pressurized updraft carburetors, blown from a Roots Supercharger which was engaged, curiously, by a rod activated by the full-throttle engagement of the accelerator pedal.

The chassis frame was designed along the same lines as that of the 500 however, with experience gained from the Silver Arrows racing campaign, its construction from oval-section tubes made it much lighter. AS distinct from many car makers of the time, most 540Ks were bodied in-house at Singelfinden, and notably, Mercedes employed 1500 people for the model’s production. Just 70 chassis are said to have been bodied outside the Mercedes Benz works.