This is a 1960 Mercedes-Benz O319 Panorama Bus that’s been rebuilt and turned into a sleeper of sorts, it’s now powered by a 430 bhp LS3 V8 with 425 lb ft of torque – a vast improvement over the ~50 bhp that some of the originals came with.
Of course, in a bus weighing between 4,000 and 5,000 lbs (depending on spec), those above mentioned power figures make the term sleeper somewhat optimistic. But there can be no argument that this bus is an order of magnitude quicker than it was when it left that factory in West Germany back at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius.
History Speedrun: The Mercedes-Benz O319 Bus
The Mercedes-Benz O 319 was the passenger version of the L 319 light commercial vehicle, it was introduced by Daimler-Benz at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in September of 1955 and built through till 1968. It was the first minibus in Mercedes-Benz’s postwar lineup, and it filled a gap in the range between the Volkswagen Transporter class below and the larger O 321 H coach above.
Its arrival marked Stuttgart’s entry into a market segment the company had largely ignored since before the war. Daimler-Benz had excellent positions in passenger cars and heavy trucks, but nothing in between once the wartime obligation to build the Opel Blitz had ended. Through the early 1950s the Volkswagen Type 2 panel van and the revived Opel Blitz demonstrated how large the light commercial market had become in West Germany, and Mercedes-Benz decided it could no longer stay out.
The O 319: Post-WWII Origins + Development
Daimler-Benz Director General Wilhelm Haspel put a one-tonne diesel commercial vehicle on the executive board’s agenda in August of 1949, arguing that a passenger-car diesel could power vans, ambulances, and even rural mail vehicles.
Fritz Nallinger, Head of Development, oversaw prototype work that began on the 19th of July 1951. That first prototype used a conventional ladder frame with live axles, coil springs, and telescopic dampers front and rear. Between 1951 and 1954 the engineering team, led by Hermann Ahrens and Eugen Stump, redesigned the vehicle from scratch, which pushed the debut from the 1951 IAA all the way to Frankfurt in 1955.
The finished vehicle was shown to the public between the 22nd of September and the 2nd of October 1955. Alongside the L 319 panel vans, flatbeds, and pickups, Daimler-Benz displayed the O 319 minibus. Series production of both began in August of 1956.
The Engineering + Layout
The 319 series had a cab-over-engine layout, with a front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels. The engine sat between the driver and the front passenger rather than ahead of them, which allowed the cab to be pushed forward for maximum cargo volume. On the L 319 panel van, it resulted in an overall length of 4.80 meters and 8.6 cubic meters of load volume – an excellent ratio.
The vehicle was built around a chassis subframe combined with a welded ladder-type body frame, an approach shared with the rear-engined O 321 H coach of 1954. Engine, gearbox, steering, and the rigid front axle were mounted to that subframe, which was bolted through elastic mounts to the floor at four points.
Multi-leaf longitudinal springs, a torsion-bar stabilizer, and telescopic shock absorbers angled toward the rear suspended the front axle. At the back sat a rigid banjo axle on leaf springs with additional coil springs to support the leaves as loads increased. The wheelbase was 2,850 mm, and the vehicle turned in an 11.5 meter circle. Four hydraulic drum brakes brought it all to a stop, and a 4-speed synchronized manual gearbox sent power to the rear wheels.
At introduction, gross weight was 3.6 tonnes, with a payload of 1.6 to 1.8 tonnes depending on the specific version.
The Mercedes-Benz O319 Engine Options
At launch, the 319 was diesel-only, a petrol version followed in early-1957. The diesel used the OM 636, a 1,767 cc inline-four already familiar from the 170 D and 180 D passenger cars, producing 43 bhp. For the L 319 panel van, Mercedes-Benz quoted a top speed of 80 km/h and fuel consumption of 9.2 liters per 100 kilometers. In mid-1961 the OM 636 was replaced by the new 2.0 liter OM 621 taken from the 190 D, rated at a slightly more impressive 50 bhp.
It was Mercedes-Benz’s first large-scale-production diesel in that displacement class with an overhead camshaft. Output rose further, to 55 bhp in 1965 thanks to some minor internal design tweaks.
The gasoline engine was the four-cylinder M 121 SOHC unit from the 180 sedan, rated at 65 bhp when it arrived in early-1957, good for 95 km/h and 14.2 liters per 100 kilometers. Output rose to 68 bhp in mid-1961 and 80 bhp in 1965. Petrol variants were popular with fire departments and other operators who needed performance and didn’t mind sacrificing the better fuel economy of diesel.
The Panorama Bus
The best-known O 319 variant is the luxury coach with roof-edge glazing, referred to in period sales material as the O 319 with Dachrandverglasung and later widely known as the Panorama Bus. On this specification, a strip of curved glass ran along the top edge of each side of the body, giving passengers an almost uninterrupted view up and out toward the sky. A large fabric sunroof could be folded back to open much of the roof.
Mercedes-Benz photographs from the era show the Panorama Bus in service on Swiss mountain routes such like the Gstaad-to-Turbach run, and it was widely used by Alpine ski resorts, hotel operators, and private tour companies. A limited number also reached the United States, where they were largely used by hotels and airlines.
Production + Rebadging
O319-based panel vans, flatbeds, and pickups were built at Sindelfingen through till 1961, and the minibuses at Mannheim over the same period. When Daimler-Benz acquired Auto Union in 1958, the Auto Union plant in Düsseldorf came with it, and Mercedes-Benz progressively converted the site into its commercial vehicle center.
Production of the 319 series shifted there in 1962, and Düsseldorf remains the main plant for Mercedes-Benz vans today. The 319 was also assembled from CKD kits in Vitoria, Spain, and Port Melbourne, Australia, while O 319 minibuses were assembled by Iran National in Tehran.
In 1963 the goods-carrying variants were rebadged under a new nomenclature that identified weight and engine output. Diesel trucks and vans became the L 405 and petrol versions the L 407. From 1965, the uprated 55 bhp diesel and 80 bhp petrol models were designated L 406 and L 408. That scheme would spread across the Mercedes-Benz commercial range for decades.
Also in 1963, the platform wheelbase was extended to 3,600 mm for longer flatbed variants, with payload up to two tonnes on the strength of reinforced brakes and springs. The O 319 kept its original designation and its successor, the O 309, debuted in early-1967, although production of the outgoing 319 series continued well into 1968.
It’s believed that 140,000 vehicles in the 319 series were built from 1956 to 1968 across all body styles, including 15,589 O 319 minibuses. The T2 goods-vehicle range, introduced in 1967 and produced through 1996, succeeded the L 319 line. Known colloquially as the Düsseldorfer Transporter, it was built at Düsseldorf until 1992, then at Ludwigsfelde. The O 309 took over the minibus role.
The LS3-Swapped 1960 Mercedes O319 Bus Shown Here
This 1960 Mercedes-Benz O 319 Panorama Bus is a resto-modded example finished in green and black. It first appeared on Bring a Trailer back in January of 2015 as a partially completed project, it was acquired by the current seller in 2018, and then became the subject of a multi-year build carried out by M&M Specialties in Napa, California.
The build was completed in 2024, and the odometer shows 600 miles since. The chassis was reworked with added crossmembers, an independent coil-spring front suspension and live rear axle with parallel leaf springs taken from a GM ¾-ton truck, power-assisted rack-and-pinion steering, and four-wheel disc brakes running 14-inch rotors.
It now rides on custom 18-inch front and 19-inch rear wheels finished in satin black and shod with 255/40 and 345/35 Bridgestone Potenza RE050 tires.
Power now comes from a 6.2 liter LS3 V8 installed under the removable engine cover between the front seats, sending power through a 4L80E 4-speed automatic to a narrowed 12 bolt rear end with 3.08:1 gearing. AutoMeter instrumentation includes a 120-mph speedometer with an inset tachometer plus auxiliary gauges, all set behind a two-spoke steering wheel.
The interior seats 13 people in total, with 11 in the rear compartment and two up front, and it’s trimmed in black vinyl with green inserts and piping over black carpet. It has four overhead panoramic windows per side, sliding side windows, a removable canvas roof panel, and a receiver hitch.
Refrigerant lines for air conditioning have been run, but the system is incomplete and non-functional at present. The seller notes that the side mirrors, perimeter body moldings, and rearview mirror are missing.
It’s now being offered for sale out of Newport Beach, California with a clean California title in the seller’s name. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
