Mercedes-Benz
580 K

Why it matters

The 580 K is a name attached in the literature to a supposed successor of the 540 K with an engine of just under 5.7 litres. The Mercedes-Benz archive treats it as a phantom model: it records no such production car and states that the idea of a 5.7-litre replacement for the 540 K, planned for spring 1940 and stopped by the war, is not supported by any proof.

How rare is it?

Six separate kinds of rarity – never combined into one number.

Each kind of rarity is rated separately and never combined.

History

The W 29 series began with the 500 K (5.0 litres, 342 chassis) and was enlarged in 1936 to the 540 K (5.4 litres, 419 chassis); in all, 761 chassis were built between February 1934 and November 1939. In 1939 the factory built experimental 5.7-litre engines on the M 24 base, with a bore 7 mm wider and a stroke 5 mm shorter than the 5.4-litre unit. The archive does not regard them as important, since Daimler-Benz was by then working on the new V12 engines M 148 and M 157.

A Bonhams catalogue for a 540 K chassis 408388 delivered to the Berlin branch on 21 September 1939, probably one of the last orders before the war began, describes it with the 5.4-litre supercharged engine, which suggests that the last customer cars were still 540 K models.

Technical specifications

Engine

Transmission & drivetrain

Chassis, body & dimensions

Performance

“Not yet verified” means no source has been checked for that value yet. Nothing is estimated to fill a gap.

Identification guide

How to tell an original from a replica or later conversion.

The archive lists only two W 29 chassis types, the 500 K and the 540 K, and no 580 K. A car advertised as a 580 K should therefore be checked against factory records and the engine, which for a 540 K is the M 24 II of 5401 cc, rather than accepted on the name. The Bonhams 540 K Cabriolet A of September 1939 (chassis 408388) illustrates what the last cars looked like: a 5.4-litre supercharged eight whose engine number includes the chassis number 408388.