The A-Class was first revealed to the motoring press late in 1996, and finally launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the autumn of 1997, the W168 A-Class was quite unusual for Mercedes-Benz featuring a front wheel drive layout and unusual tall but yet short body. One innovation of the W168 was a frontal-impact absorption system called the “Sandwich bar” (see patents DE4326 9 and DE4400132 in the name of Mercedes-Benz). In the event of a violent frontal impact, the engine and transmission would slide underneath the floor below the pedals rather than entering the passenger compartment.
This was the first complete exterior designed by Coventry University trained Steve Mattin, for which he was named Autocar magazine’s ‘Designer of the Year’. Earlier, Mattin had mostly worked on design for the W210 E-Class in 1991. Concurrent to the W168, he designed the exterior of the W220 S-Class. The final design freeze occurred in January 1995, at 32 months before August 1997 start of production.
The W168 became infamous in 1997 after flipping over during the traditional “elk test” performed by the Swedish automobile publication Teknikens V?rld. According to the report, the W168 overturned when manoeuvring to avoid the “elk”. Mercedes initially denied the problem, but then took the surprising step of recalling all units sold to date (2,600) and suspending sales for three months until the problem was solved by adding electronic stability control and modifying the suspension. The company spent DM 2.5 billion in developing the car, with a further DM 300 million to fix it.
Between 1997 and 2004, 1.1 million first generation A-Class models had been sold. lotus wallpapers, supercars, mazda wallpapers, Mercedes A Class wallpapers, rolls royce wallpapers
(Nissan Pulsar)The N10 series Pulsar was available as a three- or five-door hatchback, a short-lived four-door fastback sedan, a five-door van or station wagon, and a three-door fastback-styled coup? with a wraparound rear window introduced at the end of 1978. The van was first released in November 1978, while the export-only wagon models first appeared in early 1979. Originally the lineup consisted only of the four-door sedan which utilized the same body profile as the later hatchback models; in August 1978 the coup? and three-door hatchback models were added, along with a fuel injected version of the 1.4-liter engine. One year later a five-door hatchback appeared, replacing the four-door sedan which was immediately discontinued. Nissan Pulsar wallpapers#nissan #BugattiChiron #Nissan370Z #DodgeChallenger #AudiRS3
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