M04

By 1927 Daimler-Benz had a problem it could not engineer its way out of. The upper-middle-class Typ 300 was well made and unwanted, and the M04 was the second attempt at a fix: the same 76 mm bore as the M03, the same 55 PS at 3,200 rpm, but shorter final drive ratios — 5.4 for flat country, 5.8 for the hills — chosen to give a heavy car some urgency off the mark. Peak torque rose, and arrived lower down at 1,200 rpm.

It made no difference. Renamed Typ 320 for 1928, the car found 202 buyers. Everything around the engine stayed as Porsche had drawn it: pressed-steel channel frame, beam axles on semi-elliptic springs, four-speed gearbox, cable brakes, an 85-liter tank in the tail. Rather than start again, Stuttgart bored the six out once more for the Typ 350 — and at the same time handed the whole design to Hans Nibel to redraw, which is how the Mannheim came about.