A very unusual R129 SL500

[chris333]

As part of the "60 years of SL" exhibition at the MB museum in Stuttgart, there was this unique R129, made in 1998 with fly-by-wire controls and a more modern looking interior:

[r129sl]

Wow, I have never seen that before. It's just plain weird. The interior looks like a disaster zone, especially the controls for the headlamp flasher, indicators and wipers.

I guess this was a variation on the altogether more resolved F200 concept (which previewed the forms of the w220 S-Class).





I've also come across this, but I have no idea what Merc it is. An A-Class?

Edited by r129sl on Thursday 5th April 16:33

[tu9bas]

This was at Brooklands a couple of months back.

[chris333]

r129sl said:

Wow, I have never seen that before. It's just plain weird. The interior looks like a disaster zone, especially the controls for the headlamp flasher, indicators and wipers.

I guess this was a variation on the altogether more resolved F200 concept (which previewed the forms of the w220 S-Class).

I thought you might find that interesting!

The F200 is in the museum as well, but stuck in mid-air so not easy to peer inside. I find it fascinating looking at concept cars after a few years have elapsed and seeing how much they preview production cars.

[r129sl]

I can't get over that wacky 129! Is there any more information about it? It's obviously pre-1999 (because of the door mirrors). I wonder why they were messing round with joystick control so much.

[chris333]

Your observant as as ever! This is the car:
|http://thumbsnap.com/2fvTxwE1[/url]

I alos uploaded to youtube a video of the video that was playing about the car here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQch-efC2c

The car was made in 1997/8 as a demonstration of the drive by wire concept. The benefits were said to be more space for the driver and better safety as there is no steering column and room to put a big passenger style airbag.

The sidesticks control the throttle and brakes (back and forward) and steering (left.right) It seems like the two sidesticks are redundant, so you can use one or the other to drive with, to cater for left and right handed people and to enable you to have either hand free for other things while driving. I guess the R129 was a good base to start with as the throttle pedal was already drive by wire. It already had BAS and I'm sure they must have been developing the SBC brakes at that time, so probably used that type of technology for the brakes, which just left the steering to control.

Interestingly there were conventional Brake and throttle pedals in the passenger footwell: just-in-case I guess!

At that time Daimler was a shareholder in Airbus, which also use sidestick controls for their airliners, so I wonder if there was any help from them?

I did a bit of googling about it, and after smiling when I found my original post is now the top search result, I found these two papers which mention the car:


http://spiderman-2.laas.fr/IFIPWG/Workshops&Me...
http://webm.dsea.unipi.it/~saniw/public_html/Bari/... (page13)[url]

Edited by chris333 on Friday 6th April 23:15

[r129sl]

Well, as a R129 obsessive who thought he knew pretty much everything about these cars, I have really learned something new in the last 24hours. Thanks again, Chris.

[jith]

chris333 said:

The car was made in 1997/8 as a demonstration of the drive by wire concept. The benefits were said to be more space for the driver and better safety as there is no steering column and room to put a big passenger style airbag.

The sidesticks control the throttle and brakes (back and forward) and steering (left.right) It seems like the two sidesticks are redundant, so you can use one or the other to drive with, to cater for left and right handed people and to enable you to have either hand free for other things while driving. I guess the R129 was a good base to start with as the throttle pedal was already drive by wire. It already had BAS and I'm sure they must have been developing the SBC brakes at that time, so probably used that type of technology for the brakes, which just left the steering to control.

Interestingly there were conventional Brake and throttle pedals in the passenger footwell: just-in-case I guess!

At that time Daimler was a shareholder in Airbus, which also use sidestick controls for their airliners, so I wonder if there was any help from them?

Edited by chris333 on Friday 6th April 23:15

And what happens when the fuselink for the joystick goes down in the apex of a bend?

J

[chris333]

jith said:

chris333 said:

The car was made in 1997/8 as a demonstration of the drive by wire concept. The benefits were said to be more space for the driver and better safety as there is no steering column and room to put a big passenger style airbag.

The sidesticks control the throttle and brakes (back and forward) and steering (left.right) It seems like the two sidesticks are redundant, so you can use one or the other to drive with, to cater for left and right handed people and to enable you to have either hand free for other things while driving. I guess the R129 was a good base to start with as the throttle pedal was already drive by wire. It already had BAS and I'm sure they must have been developing the SBC brakes at that time, so probably used that type of technology for the brakes, which just left the steering to control.

Interestingly there were conventional Brake and throttle pedals in the passenger footwell: just-in-case I guess!

At that time Daimler was a shareholder in Airbus, which also use sidestick controls for their airliners, so I wonder if there was any help from them?

Edited by chris333 on Friday 6th April 23:15

And what happens when the fuselink for the joystick goes down in the apex of a bend?

J

Do you worry about this every time you go on a plane?