Crashing symbols

Our story starts a few decades earlier, in the 1950s. The world was embracing automobiles like never before as economies recovered from the travails of WWII and people embraced the freedom of personal movement afforded by motor vehicles. But by the 1960s one aspect of mass motorisation could no longer be ignored: more and more people were dying in road traffic accidents.

In 1968, the American Department of Transportation (DOT) started a program inviting expressions of interest in the development of Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESVs). Mercedes-Benz swiftly embraced the opportunity.

By this stage, the brand could already look back on more than 20 years of safety research, including development of a safety lock to prevent car doors from springing open in an accident; introducing the "unsharpened" interior to reduce secondary injuries in a crash; and designing crumple zones at the front and rear to absorb crash-impact energy.

Mercedes-Benz had also been crash testing at its Sindelfingen plant as far back as 1959. Ten years later it formed an accident research department to analyse real-world accidents, and systematically incorporate the findings into its vehicle development.

In early 1971 a project dubbed ‘ESF’ went full speed ahead at Sindelfingen.  By October 1971, a month before Led Zeppelin would release the untitled studio album containing the iconic ‘Stairway to Heaven’, Mercedes‑Benz was presenting ESF 05.

Ahead of its time

This vehicle, based on a series production car from the medium-class W 114 series, was designed to protect its occupants whether in a frontal impact against a fixed wall at 80km/h, being dropped from a height of 0.5 metres, or in a range of other front, rear and side impact tests.

Over the next four years, more than 30 ESF vehicles would be built and tested at Sindelfingen. This included a revised version of ESF 05, dubbed ESF 13, which debuted in May 1972 at the Transpo ’72 mobility trade fair in Washington D.C. Like its predecessor and the many ESF models that would follow, ESF 13 was ahead of its time, displaying safety solutions such as anti-lock brakes (ABS), airbags for all passengers, a halogen headlamp system with wiper and range control, a rear window parallel wiper, and powered windows instead of rotary crank handles.

The ESF program continued throughout the 1970s, with Mercedes‑Benz displaying the S-Class (116 series)-based ESF 22 in 1973, which introduced four three-point belts, each with three force limiters and a belt tensioner, plus an airbag for the driver's seat.