W113 220SL

[Pawel66]

I found it interesting: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2906808882966920&set=a.1377475112566979

[JamesL]

Interesting how the rear window detail, arches and rear quarters are barely different to the launch but it looks so much more “of the 50s” than a 60s car

[lreppond]

Notice the one piece hubcaps instead of two piece ones.   

[Mike Hughes]

. . . and the Italian style recessed pull handles on the doors.

[Pawel66]

It makes an impression of being more "bubble like". The roof, rear fenders, rocker panels... I do not know if it is about us getting used to the shape we know and admire or just the actual lines that went alive look better, but... they do look better.

[Merc_Girl]

Mom, not keen

Looks more of an American style than Germanic?

[georgem]

......and it could`nt be called a Pagoda - check the roof

[Garry]

It has a considerably bigger hip line running right into the door.

[Bonnyboy]

Very cool.....Sort of like a Facel Vega and a 53 corvette were great grandparents.   I really like the more pronounced cutout of the door to the rear body panel.   

[Mike Hughes]

It has a considerably bigger hip line running right into the door.

Good call.  I was wondering why the rear end looked so heavy but thought it was simply the missing chrome rub strip.

It must have been a static mock up, no exhaust pipes are evident.

[zak]

Good find, Pawel. Yes, the roof and whitewall tires really date it to the 50's. If I squint my eyes I almost imagine rear fins from that era. Like those early Sunbeam Alpine radical rear fins.
Definitely not timeless like the final production version, I agree.
Is there a comprehensive book out about the 113 creation and design?  I bought the book on the MB 107's by Autos Forever. It had all this great info and period and color photos including different full scale design studies for the body design evolution. It's interesting to see how a few subtle changes can make or break a car timeless.

jz   

[mdsalemi]

Hardly a find...with all due respect to our friend Pawel.

That is an old photo that's been on the Daimler Classic Archives Media site since, well, forever. There are more; this was not the only design exercise of the Pagoda, but one of them that was taken to full scale model. Curiously, many of the full scale models of MBs of that era show those large "gangster" style whitewall tires; all the more curious since Europeans generally despised WW tires (and for the most part still do). So it's kind of laughable.

One page I did in the Pagoda Style book noted a number of Paul Bracq design exercises for "what would become" the Pagoda...for the newbies (those who were not here on the forums in 2009-2011) Pagoda Style was a book I designed and produced and was released in 2011. This is a one-page excerpt.

[Tyler S]

Model is the key word. None of those cars had running gear or even the ability to roll on their own wheels in some cases. This one even sports the chicken wire dash vents.

[JamesL]

It is a coop after all

[stickandrudderman]

It is a coop after all

Bdm tsh!

[mdsalemi]

Model is the key word...the chicken wire [dash vents]

Of course y'all realize that the clay modeling is built on "chicken wire" or a wire frame, and hence the moniker "wire frame" in what is now today known as 3D modeling on a computer...