The 10 best Mercedes concept cars

Mercedes C111-II – 1970

Not strictly a concept in the modern sense, the C-111 series of cars were test beds for Mercedes’ experiments with differing powerplants and suspension layouts. The original C111 of 1969 was equipped with a mid-mounted, three-rotor Wankel rotary engine, upped the following year to a four-rotor with an output of 350PS (257kW) and capable of 186mph. Mercedes then, probably wisely, that rotary power was not for them and pivoted to DERV-drinkers for the C111s II and III.

These became progressively more powerful and streamlined, gaining a central fin, covered wheels and long tails in pursuit of speed and endurance records. With 228PS (170kW) five-cylinder turbodiesel, the C111-III spent 12 hours pounding round the Nardo high speed bowl in Italy, ending with a record average of 195mph and 14.7mpg. Mercedes wasn’t quite done however and the C111-IV wore even more extreme bodywork and a twin-turbo petrol V8 to snatch an outright circuit record of 251mph. It is the less extreme C111-II that still gets our vote, however, for its genuinely beautiful orange bodywork and gullwing doors.  

Mercedes C112 – 1991

Jump forward 20 years and although named as a successor to the original and continuing some of its styling cues, the C112 was an animal of very different spots. Intended as a road going counterpart to the Sauber C11 World Sports-Prototype racer, Mercedes presented the C112 as a supercar concept to judge interest among well-heeled clientele.

Powered by a 6.0-litre V12 producing 408PS (300kW), the C112 had an aluminium and kevlar body – built by Italian coachbuilders Coggoilo – on top of a bonded aluminium chassis. Active body control aimed to keep the car flat through corners while active, adjustable front splitter and rear wing helped it get to the corner in a straight line. Unsurprisingly Mercedes received 700 orders for the car but cancelled the programme, deciding that a halo car wasn’t necessary at the time.

Mercedes F100 – 1991

The Stuttgart skunkworks division had another, rather more prosaic looking concept, in the same year as the C112 but one which was far more ahead of its time than the stillborn supercar. Alright, so it’s definitely not going to be an object of desire (although the C112 was arguably not that much of a looker) but under – and on – its skin the F100 was decades ahead of its time.

Here’s a quick list of the new technology it showcased and there’s a good chance your modern automobile doesn’t have all of them. Adaptive cruise control, Xenon headlamps, voice recognition, tyre-pressure monitoring, rain sensors, a keycard, rain sensing wipers, blind spot warning, collision avoidance, a reversing camera and a solar-cell roof to keep all that extra tech running. It even had a laptop and a fax machine fitted. Oh and its six-cylinder engine ran on hydrogen. Your move, the future.

Mercedes Vario Research Car – 1994

It’s not an uncommon conundrum, often the car we happen to have isn’t quite the one we need, whether that’s an estate for a family holiday, a sport coupe for solo commutes, a pick-up truck for moving house or convertible just because it’s sunny. Well Mercedes attempted to solve that first world problem with a car that could be all four.

The basic design was engineered as a full four-seater with a series of one-piece body modules which could be swapped to make it a true multi-purpose vehicle. These were made of carbon-fibre reinforced plastic and were light enough for a couple of people to be able to perform the swap. The idea was that these could be hired as and when needed. To help facilitate this the Vario also featured drive-by-wire controls and Active Body Control to keep progress steady regardless of what went on up top.

Mercedes F300 Life Jet – 1997

This just has to be the result of an Oktoberfest bet, right? Or perhaps in the year of the infamous A-Class Elk Test rollover it was an attempt to build a car that wouldn’t rollover however hard you tried. There have been many attempts to combine the respective benefits of cars and motorbikes over the years and every single one, without exception has merely created a mash-up of the worst instead.

The F300 isn’t really that much of an exception since it was rather overweight for a two-wheeler at 800kg and actually larger than the A-Class on which it was based, despite being a wheel short. What it could do however was tilt up to 30-degrees in the direction of a bend allowing for more comfortable high speed cornering due to the forces pushing the driver and passenger into their seats rather than out of them. The principle is still seen in action today in the firm’s Active Body Control although a lot less likely to make passengers sick.

Mercedes F-Cell Roadster – 2009

Mercedes management could never be accused of lacking imagination as the F-Cell Roadster proves. We don’t hold with the sense of humour stereotype especially as this thing demonstrates a flair for the absurd. What else to do to celebrate the very first car your founder built, more than 120 years on, but recreate it in carbon-fibre and powered by a fuel-cell.

Never before has there been a marriage of Formula 1 front-end (that’s really where it is from), the wheels from a pair of penny farthings and an emissions-free mid-mounted fuel-cell with a 350 mile range. Probably not likely to ever be one again, especially with a wooden floor and controlled by what looks like an Atari joystick. But it worked and was even driven along a section of the route taken by Bertha Benz on the first road trip back in 1888. We love it.

Mercedes Biome – 2010

Well the brief for this one must have been interesting because when it was presented for the LA Auto Show Design Challenge in 2010, Mercedes said it was grown from seeds and powered by plant juice. Incredibly, this didn’t win. Maybe it was just too wacky even for the denizens of LA.

Its designers said the car was grown from two seeds, the exterior one germinating from the front three-pointed star and the other being harvested for a ‘biofibre’ used to knit the interior. Each seed is encoded with DNA keyed to the car’s owner and the wheels are also each grown from individual seeds which must make tyre replacement a lengthy process. And when it’s reached the end of its life the Biome can be composted rather than scrapped. There were definitely some plants of a certain class involved in the concept’s development.

Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet – 2017

Only in this company could the 6 Cabriolet be described as conventional. It almost seems ordinary in fact, despite being jaw-droppingly pretty. The 6 Cabriolet is a modern interpretation of the old school land yacht with a definite emphasis on the yacht and, as befitting any concept of the last few years, is all-electric.

Now, you will no doubt have read much about the packaging efficiencies of electric vehicles. Well the ‘6’ in the car’s name refers to its six-metre length (a metre longer than the new Land Rover Defender 110 we just tested) and yet there are only two-seats on board. Well nothing shouts success like excess we suppose, even if it did nick its rear-end from the Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider.

Mercedes-Benz EQ Silver Arrow – 2018

With such a huge back catalogue to choose from it must be hard for Mercedes to choose which iconic car from its history to celebrate. Well you can’t really go wrong with something from the original Silver Arrows era and the EQ was inspired by the W125 Rekordwagen of 1938. Powered by a twin-supercharged V12 which was ice-cooled because the air intakes were so small due to the extreme streamlining of the bodywork, the W125 was driven by Rudolf Caracciola over a 268mph timed kilometre. The record stood until 2017 when it was finally beaten by a Koenigsegg Agera RS.

The one-off homage is of course battery-powered but still packing 738PS, a hair up on the original, and is actually built on the Modular Electric Architecture that underpins Mercedes’ new EQ models. A leather and walnut trimmed single-seat cockpit harks back to Caracciola’s heroics but who knows what he would have made of the active aerodynamics, 3D-projections onto the aeroscreen and rose gold wheels.

If you’re a fan of the Silver Arrows, read our list of the nine best Mercedes racing cars of all time.

Vision Mercedes Simplex – 2019

There just has to be a secret cadre of steampunk enthusiasts at Mercedes’ headquarters. First the F-Cell Roadster and then last year the Simplex. Like the Silver Arrow concept, the Simplex harks back to a past Mercedes model, what was effectively the very first performance car. Breaking away entirely from the ‘horseless carriage’ design and engineering direction the 1901 Mercedes 35HP was the suggestion of visionary Emil Jellinek and named after his daughter.

Its spiritual successor updates the basic, but basically just right, design of the Simplex and creates something that looks like a Captain Nemo T-bucket roadster. The front and back halves are coloured white and black respectively just like the original and a leather trunk round out the rear. Information appears on a seamless dashboard as and when the driver requires it, floating into their field of view while they and the passenger recline on what appears to be the Addams’ Family’s sofa. Simply the best.