M851

In June 1950 Daimler-Benz shifted stationary-engine production from Mannheim to Berlin-Marienfelde, starting with the two-cylinder M 202 and the four-cylinder M 204. Out of that line came a run of single-cylinder diesels sold to customers who wanted shaft power and nothing else: first the slow-running horizontal MB 821 of about 1952, promoted for its simplicity where no trained staff existed and used above all to drive irrigation pumps and generator sets in dry countries, then the stronger MB 841 from 1955. The MB 851 arrived around 1960 — 1,454 cc, water-cooled, direct injection, 20 PS, and turning at 2,000 rpm rather than the old horizontals' 1,000.

It never had a public face. Engines of this kind left Marienfelde in crates to drive pumps, compressors, saws and generators, much of it for export, and were installed inside machinery that carried somebody else's name; the MB 851 and its near-identical sister the MB 861 are remembered today mainly by their dimensions and their rating. Twenty horsepower will lift water all day, which was the entire point of the exercise.