Related to that NHTSA is working to improve roof strengths:

Special Report: NHTSA grids for Crushed Roof Showdown with Big Three.
http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/2004/crushedroofs/index.htm

Reminds me of about 30 years ago, when in 1970 DOT initiated a program to strengthen the crash structure of vehicles and asked manufacturers to participate. Since MB had completed much work in that area, and wanted to remain competitive, they participated in that program and built 31 ESV (Experimental Safety Vehicle) test vehicles, all of which were crashed. As far as I know ESV24 was based on the W116 in 1973, which to this day is one of my daily drivers. ESV22 in 1972 met all the safety criteria already, but was about 10% heavier than ESV24.


my 73 450SE


ESV 24

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W163.154, M112.942, 722.662, ZF.970.402