1959 Mercedes-Benz W111 Fintail Crash Tests

In the 1950s and 1960s, engineers and researchers laid the foundation for critical safety innovations of the coming years. At the time, there was a growing understanding and refinement of the principle of vehicle safety.

For example, a conscious distinction was made between passive and active safety with the appropriate sub-specialty fields of study: whereas active safety with its aspects of driving safety, conditional safety and operational safety had always played an important role for engineers since the invention of the car, the far-reaching significance of passive safety was fully understood in the mid-20th century.

One of the first highlights in series production was the premiere of the safety body in the “tailfin” (W 111) in 1959. The safety body was developed by the mastermind of vehicle safety, Béla Barényi, who had been employed at Daimler-Benz since 1939. Amongst his most important innovations was the door lock with securing pin, which was first presented in 1951.

The aspiration for even greater vehicle safety led to innovations which affected all areas of the car. Amongst other things, the Mercedes-Benz engineers established padded structures in the interior, improved the safety of the body structure with the help of increasingly sophisticated crash tests and optimized the conditional safety with improved ergonomics. The entire chassis was also further improved in terms of safety. For example, Mercedes-Benz introduced disc brakes on all four wheels in 1961. The dual-circuit braking system followed in 1963.

For decades Barényi was known as the most prolific inventor in history. When he retired on 31 December 1972, he already had more than 2000 patents, twice as many as Thomas Edison; by 2009 Barényi had over 2500 patents.

After mechanical and electrical engineering studies at the Vienna College, he was employed by Austro-Fiat, Steyr and Adler automobile companies before joining Daimler-Benz in 1939. Heading the pre-development department of Daimler-Benz from 1939 to 1972, he developed e.g. the concept of the crumple zone, the non-deformable passenger cell, collapsible steering column, safer detachable hardtops etc. and other features of Mercedes-Benz automobiles.

Many of Barényi’s ideas were so ahead of their time that some did not make it into series production until long after Barényi had left active service, for example, the recessed windscreen wiper when in standby mode, which was introduced in the W/V 126 model series of the S-Class in 1979.

Barényi’s safety body is based on the concept of a shape-stable passenger cell with specific deformable crumple zones at the front and rear to dissipate kinetic energy in the event of a collision. The “tailfin” premium vehicles thus heralded the first high point of vehicle safety research at Mercedes-Benz, and the safety body soon became the international standard for passive safety in the global car design industry.

A Mercedes advertisement featuring Barényi’s image stated: “No one in the world has given more thought to car safety than this man.”