On the first few production body prototypes, one kind of special taillight appeared. They appear on a limited basis on a few vehicles, but are very distinctive. Studies here suggest they are a stopgap measure.
I received a reply on Instagram two days ago, in a post about prototype A000006, where I mentioned that that car had non-production taillights. One follower said they are production taillights with some portion masked, and he sounds positive. I don’t know how to answer because Instagram can’t write too long replies. Fittingly, I realized that I had yet to verbalize this phenomenon, so it’s a good opportunity to sort out a past investigation.
The development and testing of the 140 continued until the world premiere, or even after that. You can define these pioneering cars as prototypes. After all, a prototype is not an exact concept, and there is a world of difference between the very first prototype and the most mature prototype. Since April 1990, prototypes have been built with production bodies, marking the 140 one step closer to mass production. However, many parts will have to wait a bit further, some are less obvious, but the taillights are probably the most eye-catching of them all.
In April 1990, two new prototypes built with production bodies were spotted at the Sindelfingen test site. One didn’t have lights to begin with, either headlights or taillights. It is A000003 (WÜ-AN 315), a black 500 SEL, which at this time also had a non-production rear bumper with grooves on it.
The other one is A000002 (WÜ-AN 313), a smoke silver 500 SEL. It has received lights and been made up by a master of disguise. Still has the non-production rear bumper though.
Both cars were freshly built, with earliest “delivery date” dating back to May 7. There is no absolutely accurate information on when prototype construction began. The only time comes from the data card, the delivery date is defaulted to the deadline for production. Since for these two cars the delivery dates are one month later than their earliest spotted dates, the status at this time can be considered unfinished.
Another Smoke Silver 500 SEL once without any light is A000006, I posted the picture of later version with number plate WÜ-KT 243 on Instagram and get reply above. In addition to the lights, at this time it already received production rear bumper. I tend to think that it and 2 cars above were built in different places since they have production numbers 9600003, 9600004 and 5600001. The first two should be built in the prototype department and the other in the R 107 workshop. The A000006 was the first 140 built with production line tools in the R107 factory.
There were other production body prototypes during this period, but none could be seen with production taillights either covered up or with non-production taillights exposed. A000008 and A000009 were tested by the board at a board acceptance event in Spain in early June 1990. They were the silver 600 SEL and the black 300 SEL.
The event was supposed to have taken place in a closed area, so the front of the car was completely uncamouflaged. However, the taillight of A000008 is partially covered by black tape. There is no rear photo of A000009 yet. Theoretically, since the front is already exposed, there is no need to cover the rear, unless some issue regard taillights happaned. So at this point both cars may still not have received production-ready taillights, which have delivery date on June 7 and May 28.
In late June 1990, the A000003, which had no taillights before, also appeared at the Sindelfingen test site with non-production taillight. You can tell it by the red lower part rather than the clear band. As of this moment, the production taillights don’t appear to be ready yet.
Later in September, A000006 with strange taillights was driven and tested by Dr. Wolfgang Peter in person. This is the non-production taillight I mentioned on Instagram. It should be the same taillight as on the A000003, this time without camouflage at all.
This taillight looks a bit like a BMW. I can’t tell if it borrows parts from other cars on the market. The development engineer I asked didn’t know much about this, but he believed that all parts, including the lights, were made by Mercedes itself. In fact, it is very difficult to find taillights that fit the rear fenders perfectly, so I prefer to assume that these taillights were handmade. As to why they aren’t connected to the trunk lid and retain the clear reverse light strip, that’s a mystery.
The layout of such taillight is somewhat similar to that of the BMW E36. Similar taillights were used on earlier prototypes, but they were clearly different. The old taillights were smaller and adapted to the earlier prototype’s trunk opening method, more like the BMW E38.
The A000010 used for the press photo shoot was the first car to appear with production-type taillights. This specially built car had many parts that were not ready. For example, there were many parts in the interior and cabin that were either from the W 126 or hand-built. But the taillights are already there. Also, A000010 only has a close-up of the taillights, but not any complete rear photos, so it may still be missing some rear exterior parts.
The license plate A000010 does not have an emissions inspection sticker, so it is not intended to be driven on the road. But they couldn’t wait any longer and started filming as soon as the tail lights were received, it’s September already.
Newly built prototypes since then all have production taillights, such as the A000011 below, 500 SEL in ice blue. This car was also spotted in September 1990, next to Dr. Peter’s A000006. However, it lacks the trim above the license plate on the trunk lid, which may be what A000010 also lacks and results the absense of rear photo.
The A000013, nautical blue 500 SEL used for earlist stuido photographing right after the A000010 seems more complete. The parts of the 140 are gradually arriving. A000010 does not yet have an auxiliary fan, but A000013 already has them.
There are two questions.
- Can non-production taillights be replaced by production taillights?
- Why only a few cars use non-production taillights?
For the first question. Non-production taillights are of course not the result of the production taillights being masked, they are an independent subject. The question is that these taillights appear to be embedded into the rear body panel that matches them, rather than simply being placed in and covered with some fiber.
In 1993, Mercedes set up its own recycling department so that prototypes destined for destruction could be donated with recyclable organs instead of being sent directly to the junkyard to be squeezed into a cube. In this tragic but proud publicity, A000004 is used as a proud destruction case. It can be seen that it also had non-production taillights, which remained the case until it was destroyed in 1993.
In the known pictures, the rears of these non-production taillight cars all look solid, with no visible bumps or bonding gaps. Combined with the fact that this taillight lasted on the A000004 until 1993, it’s possible that the rear of these prototypes were specially modified to accommodate the non-production taillights. Their taillights were not updated as production parts arrived.
This makes the second question more relevant. Why put a lot of effort into putting taillights on just a handful of cars that don’t fit the final product?
Here’s a picture of A000002 from an unknown date, which had non-production taillights. This photo was released in December 1990, but judging from the employees’ attire, it was clearly not winter. Its details aren’t that different from the April 1990 photo, so the prototype may have had non-production taillights since then.
There are at least two whys. First of all, why are there only a few? My counting is, 9 at most, maybe only 5. After A000009, the production taillights were in place. From April 1990 to September 1990, about five months apart. Now that we’ve seen the earliest production body prototype running without the lights, it’s clear that the lights were in place after the body. In this gradual process, the taillights fell behind. The old prototype taillights were unusable and production taillights were not yet in place, so only a transitional taillight could be designed.
The second problem is more technical. As a product that has put a lot of effort into aerodynamics, the rear of the 140 is crucial to verifying aerodynamics. If the rectangular taillights of the old prototype are installed carelessly on the production body, exposing excess edges or uneven tape, issues such as aerodynamics and NVH cannot be effectively verified. So they did design a longitudinal member that fills the air in the reverse light strip.
There is another important premise for the assumptions of the above two questions, that is, the cars using this kind of taillights are sometimes in an uncamouflaged state. The use of these taillights is not meant to confuse car spies or competitors, as the front is completely exposed.
Finally, do we know it was a delay from the supplier that caused this situation? Like many other plastic parts, the 140’s taillights should have markings indicating the production date. Anywan, the stamp on taillight made by ULO is the “clock” style, rather than the form. So it didn’t record every production from the very begining. But since the press photo started right after taillight arrived, and it’s the very last exterior part, it does seem to drag down the shot.
Cars covered in this article proved with non-production taillights: (PN, FIN, DD)
All investigations are based on limited information, please email me if you have doubts about the veracity of this article. If you want to quote the content of this article, please contact me in advance, please do not use my text for any commercial purposes.