Many of the mid-range automobiles were built at the pre-merger Benz and Company Mannheim works. The 290 model range, including sedans, two- and four-passenger cabriolets, and roadsters, with a 2.9-liter, six-cylinder side-valve engine producing 22.6 horsepower. Though very attractive and well-suited to its customers’ needs, the 290 was notably underpowered. In 1938 the model 320 was introduced, built on the same chassis frame as the 290 but with more than triple the horsepower from a completely redesigned engine, and with longer, wider coachwork that offered considerably more luxury and comfort. This four-passenger 320 Cabriolet B was produced in 1938 and first owned by German-born HRH Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg, wife of Prince Gustaf Adolf and mother of the future King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. Only 5,189 320s were produced at Mannheim during the period of 1937 –42. Even the existence, much less the continuous registration, of any Mercedes-Benzes produced at Mannheim, even less so the cabriolets, is unusual because of their relative lack of importance during World War II, which led them to be conscripted by the Wehrmacht or consigned to scrap use.
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photo: Alexander Babic ©2020 Courtesy of RM Sotheby's
