From honeycomb to high-tech: how Mercedes grilles have evolved since 1900 – Jalopnik

The importance of a car’s grille cannot be understated. It is more often than not the defining feature of a car’s ‘face’, and therefore the thing that dictates the nature or personality of the car. For example, the cheerful face of a Frogeye Sprint, or the aggressive and purposeful face of a Shelby ‘Stang: their personality is largely defined by their grilles, along with the headlights.

So when it comes to a legendary premium brand like Mercedes-Benz, the role of a grille is hard to underestimate. You can look at any Mercedes from the last 60 or 70 years, and even as a non-car enthusiast we think it would be quite easy to identify it as a Merc. Chrome, louvered grilles and prominent hood ornaments: whether you’re rocking a ’60s SL or a ’90s 190E, the recipe is largely the same.

However, Mercedes-Benz didn’t just wake up one day and decide to adopt the look we know and love today. That oh-so-recognizable face only came after decades of innovation, trials and tribulations. From combating cooling problems to distinguishing between sports and luxury models, this is the story of how Merc grilles have evolved over the past 125 years.

The first car, the Benz Patent Motor-Wagen from 1886, was of enormous importance. Essentially it made the horse obsolete overnight, even if it wasn’t perfect, and neither were the cars that followed in the years to come. One of the biggest challenges with these earliest cars was cooling.

Engineers and automotive pioneers of that era were extremely creative because there was no rule book written on how things should be done; they were the ones who wrote it. In 1900, Mercedes-Benz succeeded in writing a particularly important chapter by solving the cooling problems. The answer was the honeycomb radiator of the Mercedes-Benz 35 PS. The radiator consisted of more than 8,000 small pipes, with a square cross-section of approximately 6 millimeters per side. This design provided greater airflow and therefore better cooling. A fan would be mounted just behind, which would also provide better cooling properties, especially at lower speeds when airflow was minimal.

Efficiency was the key word here, and the 35hp required just 9 liters of water to cool itself efficiently – a 100% reduction over previous models. Mercedes continued to refine the design over the next few years. Notably, in 1911, Mercedes-Benz debuted a pointed radiator on its more powerful models, such as the Knight 16. This provided a larger surface area and therefore improved cooling properties. Instead of adapting this to all models, Mercedes kept the flat design for lower-powered models. After all, the pointed design was considerably more complex to produce and unnecessary for smaller cars.

It would be decades later before Mercedes came up with a new, era-defining radiator improvement. In 1931, the Mercedes-Benz 170 (Type W 15) debuted, introducing a bold new design. To the untrained eye it may not have looked all that different, but the adjustments made were significant. This was the first time that the radiator itself would be mounted behind a protective cover, or, as you and I may call it, a grille.

The grille would be mounted by a chrome frame, a design feature that survives to this day on many makes and models. There would be two Mercedes-Benz logos at the top; a flat emblem atop the chrome frame, and that instantly recognizable hood ornament standing proudly.

The honeycomb design was retained and served two functions. First, it didn’t restrict airflow, and second, it prevented dirt and debris from clogging the radiator. After all, dirty radiator fins and ineffective radiator fins, and radiators with holes (thanks to rocks and whatever else littered the roads in 1931) were a reliability nightmare. The design was slightly modified, mainly to appear more imposing on upper-class models, but ultimately a uniform recipe emerged for Mercedes-Benz models of this age. It was eye-catching, efficient and it just made sense.

Mercedes-Benz had always dabbled in motorsport and made an impression over the decades, and the 1950s were no different. This was an era when automotive innovation really excelled, after a decade of little improvement or excitement due to the war. New, fun designs were popping up everywhere and sports cars were on the rise, because citizens finally had something to celebrate again.

Triumphs, MGs and Corvettes were hot new properties, and Mercedes-Benz didn’t want to miss the action and was there with them. For the racers, the iconic 300SL Gullwing was a force to be reckoned with, and for the weekend enthusiast, Mercedes offered the impressive 190SL – which we reviewed a few years ago. Instead of upright honeycomb covers, these sleek sports cars had wide, shallow slatted grilles with a large three-pointed star at their center. Internally, this design was known as the ‘sports car face’ and has perhaps gone down in history as one of the German automaker’s more timeless grille designs.

The open slats provided optimal cooling, but the sleek, minimalist chrome lines were typically Mercedes and effortlessly stylish. No matter who was behind the wheel, Stirling Moss chasing a Mille Miglia record, or your neighbor taking a Saturday night cruise, they would look good doing it.

In 1972 the luxurious 450 SEL was launched. This was an executive-level sedan that was effectively the predecessor to the S-Class, a model that has been seen as the benchmark in the luxury sedan sector for decades. It was at this time, in 1972, that Mercedes’ newly stylized executive face appeared.

This new face featured a wider slatted grille, and while the grille dimensions would change from model to model, the design would be one that would grace the front of small and large models for decades. This provided a uniform face across the range, so whether it was a ‘baby Benz’ 190e, or a flagship SEL, the model in question would be immediately recognizable as a Mercedes-Benz.

As the decades progressed, the grilles became less busy, with fewer upright slats first and then also fewer horizontal slats, allowing for a simpler finish. This allowed newer models to differentiate themselves from older releases, all without having to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. The understated design worked well, after all, luxury models of this era weren’t cars that screamed and shouted with flashy appearance packages – even in the ’80s, most Mercedes models were fairly understated in terms of appearance.

The year in question marks the first in which Mercedes offers two variants of the grille. For traditionalists, a classic design was still available, and for those who wanted to lean more into the whole aggressive German vibe that was emerging at the time, a sporty design was offered. This theme would continue for years, to this day, where numerous styles are still offered. For example, the Panamericana grilles that are proving popular on AMG models, alongside the diamond-studded grilles of Merc’s electric range.

From this point on, more “firsts” followed, such as the minimalist three-bar grille of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class from 2008, and the vertical slatted frame of Mercedes’ Maybach models another two years later. Despite the changes and variations, each grille was still quintessentially Mercedes, but these adjustments allowed individual models to show their own unique personality.

Recent concepts, such as the Vision V and Vision One-Eleven, suggest that Merc models could once again deviate from the traditional design that has been seen on the models for decades in the coming years. Although it seems likely that the core models will continue to sport the vertical-slat, wide-opening chrome grilles for a while to maintain that all-important brand image.