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The new Mercedes-Benz sportscars typify European catalytic converter design trends. Maximum frontal-area for minimum back-pressure and maximum power of the 4-valve engine was the target for the new 300 SL. This was achieved by moving away from conventional design and using a shape of substrate and housing equidistant to the contour of the transmission-tunnel. Great efforts had to be done to give necessary mechanical strength to the system, but as a result there is a big improvement in engine power and catalytic longterm stability. New canning technology, based upon mat, has been utilised for the 300 CE. A lot of engineering ideas were necessary to develop a so-called “high-tech” variant of the mat-canning system, which fulfills all the demands without any defects, especially under European driving conditions. Apart from economy of space, additional advantages of the new converter, compared with wire-mesh systems, include lower external surface temperature and less noise.

This paper describes the exhaust emission control system designed for the new Mercedes-Benz sports car generation 300 SL and 500 SL, Remarkable features of the catalytic converters are maximum environmental compatibility, i. e. minimum of emission and noise under all driving conditions. By reduced back-pressure, they also contribute greatly to the well known requirements of a sports car: high performance and high torque over the entire engine-speed-range. Apart from an effective exhaust gas aftertreatment, great efforts were made to prevent the formation of pollutants under all driving conditions. This work is done by intelligent motor management consisting of digital spark control, mechanical-electronic injection, variable valve timing and EGR.