Mercedes-Benz Engine

M08

The Mercedes-Benz M08 is a I8 gasoline piston engine.

Years
1928–1939
Configuration
I8
Fuel
Gasoline
Top power
111 PS

Daimler-Benz’s first eight-cylinder engine, drawn in a hurry and fitted to an old-fashioned car.

Horch had launched its straight-eight in 1926 and Stuttgart had nothing to set against it, so Porsche produced one at speed for the Paris show of autumn 1928: a side-valve eight of 4,622 cc and 80 PS, in the 18/80 PS Typ Nürburg 460. The car around it was the problem. Porsche used the old high frame with straight side members, which made a new model look a decade out of date, and it sold so poorly that finished chassis stood in stock for six years and had to be discounted away.

Nibel put the same engine into a low-frame chassis for 1929, which looked far better and still trailed the Horch. So the engine did the improving instead: 4,918 cc and 100 PS for the Nürburg 500 of 1931, then 110 PS at 3,300 rpm on 6.6:1 compression for the Typ 500 N of 1936, by which point the car would run to 123 km/h. Pope Pius XI was given a specially equipped Nürburg in 1930, which has a fair claim to being the first popemobile. The line ended in 1939 after 3,842 cars, the last Mercedes-Benz offered with wooden-spoke wheels.

Versions.

Every factory version of the M08.

VersionDisplacementBore × StrokeCompressionPowerTorque
084,622 cc 60 kW (80 hp; 82 PS) at 3,400 rpm237 N·m (175 lb·ft) at 1,200 rpm
08 II4,918 cc 75 kW (101 hp; 102 PS) at 3,100 rpm255 N·m (188 lb·ft) at 1,250 rpm
08 III4,918 cc 82 kW (110 hp; 111 PS) at 3,300 rpm257 N·m (190 lb·ft) at 1,250 rpm