Mercedes-Benz 220 S Ponton
Car-ID: XT0141
Vehicle Description
In the year 1957, this Mercedes-Benz 220 S of the W 180 series was built at the company’s plant in Sindelfingen. It was later shipped to Venezuela where it somehow managed to survive many decades. Now, nearly 70 years after it left the factory, this car is back in its country of origin, waiting to be restored to its former glory.
While it is obvious at first glance that a whole lot of work will be necessary to reach this goal, it becomes more and more apparent once you take a closer look, that the basis for this is very solid indeed. Owing to the mild climate, the 220 S has surprisingly good sheet metal. The interior, apparently all still original, has heavy traces of use, but is far from being unsalvageable. The wooden dashboard and the trim elements around the side windows are astonishingly well preserved, and the same can be said about the instrument cluster and the analog clock. There’s even the Becker Brescia radio still in place. And of course this 220 S boasts another rarity: It features the sought-after folding roof!
All this together makes for a highly interesting and promising restoration project of a large Ponton Mercedes. You can just about imagine how picture-beautiful this car will look again… Are you the right person to make this happen?
While other car manufacturers had quickly followed the pioneers Citroen and Opel, who started using unitary construction designs as early as the mid-thirties, Mercedes was a late adopter: Their first unibody car, the 180 of the W 120 series, appeared in 1953. It was followed one year later by the larger 220 (W 180), which was subsequently nicknamed “the large Ponton”. Its wheelbase had been extended by 170 mm compared to the “small Ponton”, to make room for an inline-6 cylinder engine and also to provide more leg room for passengers in the rear.
Pundits differentiate between the W 180 I or 220a, which was the pre-facelift model until 1956, and the W 180 II, or 220 S, which was built between March 1956 and October 1959. The facelift left the car externally largely unaltered, but the 2.2 litre engine received an upgrade and its power output rose from 63 kW (85 hp) to 74 kW (100 hp), and again in 1957 to 78 kW (106 hp).
Nearly 550,000 Ponton sedans were built between 1953 and 1962, subdivided into different series and equipped with various engines. 84,645 fall into the W 180 category. The Ponton family also includes a much rarer number of convertibles and coupés.
