The Mercedes-Benz W 110 is a passenger car of the upper middle class. Vehicles of this type were produced between 1961 and 1968 and replaced the “Ponton series” W 120/W 121. Colloquially, the W 110 was referred to as the “small tail fin”. It shared the body (“unit body”) with the essentially identical W 111 (“large tail fin”), which had already been launched in 1959.

A distinctive feature of the W 110, like those of the similar 111 and 112 series, are the tail fins, with which the manufacturer Daimler-Benz, which stood for a rather conservative design, made concessions to the prevailing car design in the USA at the time. The straight-lined, elegant body shape with the lateral corrugations in the sheet metal was developed by the then Daimler-Benz chief designer Karl Wilfert and his team. Compared to American vehicles, however, the tail fins on the W 110 were rather small. The manufacturer called them “direction fins” to make parking easier – they clearly marked the end of the car. All-round visibility was very good thanks to the panoramic front and rear windows that were pulled around the corner.

The body was distinguished by a hitherto unheard-of level of passive safety: It was the first to have a stable passenger cell and effective crumple zones. Mercedes carried out extensive crash tests; for example, a vehicle was made to roll over at 80 km/h over a ramp. In addition, the W 110 had the wedge-pin door locks that had already been installed in the W 111. These increased the stability of the passenger cell and prevented passengers from being thrown out in the event of an accident, as the doors no longer popped open.