Mercedes-Benz 60 Years Unimog Design Concept
Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a unique Mercedes-Benz 60 Years Unimog Design Concept at a recent celebration birthday event for the truck. The design of the concept was said to have been inspired by the poison dart frog.
The first Unimog was built at the Mercedes-Benz Special trucks division at Gaggenau in Germany in 1951. Over 60 years later, the go-anywhere trucks are still being made, however, at the company's Wörth plant, carrying much the same design characteristics and mechanical attitude.
The concept is based on the current Unimog U5000 platform, showcasing a dramatic and almost caricature-like exterior layout. There's no doors, just a very open cabin or seating platform for a driver and one passenger. Both are surrounded by a chunky central roll bar and 'hugged' by equally chunky wrap-around beams.
It's certainly not dull, the bonnet and front and rear guards are painted in bright green paint while the thick chassis and roll bar sections are painted in matte silver. The huge black tyres match the tinted two-piece windscreen and various undercarriage components.
The Universal-Motor-Gerät (Unimog) concept was designed by Bertrand Janssen, a member of the Mercedes-Benz commercial design team. He spoke about the project at the unveiling, saying
"On no account did we work in an atmosphere where our ideas were divorced from reality. Here we have a vehicle which is puristic, but still clearly true to concept - with the claim, that some of its details will turn up in coming product ranges in future.
"We continued to take up the most important Unimog features which have characterised the vehicle for the last 60 years and which will also characterise it in future - features such as portal axles, coil springs or the frame concept."
Highlight features include a chassis made from blocks of aluminium, traditional long-travel coil springs painted in bright red, special focused stage light headlights and the same overall extreme degree of versatility as the road-going Unimog.
Mercedes-Benz has no plans to produce the concept but it will use elements of its design as inspiration for future products.
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