Mercedes 170D OTP 1951 Blue/Black

Mercedes 170D OTP 1951 Blue/Black by Autocult

Chasing Criminals in a Convertible

It’s the three letters after the model designation that signify what makes this Mercedes-Benz so extraordinary—OTP. This abbreviation stands for “Open Touring Car for Police.”Due to high demand from police departments in the late 1940s, Mercedes-Benz offered its 170D, Series 136, in a special configuration to police departments, which were happy to accept this offer. The 170 had been in production since 1936—with a war-related hiatus—and was therefore considered reliable, robust, and well-regarded, making it quite popular. In 1951, it also reflected the current state of the art, as competitors were largely relying on their latest civilian vehicles from the late 1930s. For the government version, the Swabian plant equipped the car with a hypoid rear axle as standard. Unlike the civilian version, the driver and front passenger sat on a continuous, non-adjustable bench seat instead of individual seats, and the car ran on wider rims than a commercially available 170. The 170D OTP was mostly painted in the distinctive “fir green”—the color preferred at the time by the police and the newly created Federal Border Guard—though the models for the Berlin police were finished in “gray-blue,” and those for Baden-Württemberg featured a black stripe on the fenders. Between 1951 and 1953, the Swabians offered their official-use Benz to government agencies, which purchased 530 of them—though the figure 531 is also cited.