Name the first production mid-engined sports car. It’s a tricky automotive quiz question that probably has the 1960 Bonnet Djet as the listed answer. Porsche anoraks will claim that the 550 Spyder predates it, but few recall that Daimler-Benz developed the idea 75 years ago for a 1500cc roadster.
For most, the pre-war image of the German giant is grosser state saloons, glamorous supercharged roadsters and exotic Grand Prix racers, but the Stuttgart manufacturer was just as serious about its bread-and-butter ranges, which included the advanced Type 130H (Heck) launched in 1933. ‘Heck’ stood for rear, because the 1308cc ‘four’ was mounted behind the rear axle. This two-door four-seater was being built six months before Ferdinand Porsche signed a contract with Hitler to develop the Volkswagen, which didn’t enter production until 1940. The handling was tricky, with its rear swing-axle and pendulum engine position, but the car bristled with innovation. More than 4000 were built during those tough economic times and, to promote the lower-range models, in November 1933 chief engineer Max Wagner proposed the idea of a mid-engined sports GT to compete in the 2000km durch Deutschland trial.
Unlike the Type 130, the new streamlined W30/Type 150 two-seater followed the layout of the advanced 1923 Benz Rennwagen Heckmotor, better known as the Tropfen-Wagen (teardrop-car), with engine and gearbox turned through 180º and mounted ahead of the back axle. Ex-Mercedes man Porsche was developing a similar layout for his Auto Union P-wagen GP car in his Stuttgart-based Konstruktion Büro.