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Mercedes-Benz company revels in celebrating milestones and innovations. Last week was another chance to hit a new goal when a legendary Mercedes engineer celebrated his 80th birthday.
Kurt Oblander was an engineer with Mercedes-Benz from 1955 until 1991. He specialized in developing engines for the company and was a pivotal part of the company’s emission control development. Oblander is best known for his innovations in the catalytic converter and its advancements. In fact, some Mercedes experts say that this may have been his biggest achievement. He played a major role in creating the exhaust catalytic converter that the German automaker included as standard equipment beginning in 1986.
Oblander has a love for the environment. That love showed through in the creations and developments he made for Mercedes-Benz. During his career, he strived to make a car that was not only better for the consumer but also one that was better for the environment. He was concerned about the future generations of drivers and the world in which they would live.
His last triumph was created in 1991: the M 100 eight-cylinder unit Mercedes-Benz 600.
When Oblander retired in 1991 after working for the company for 36 years, he described his 12-cylinder engine passenger car as “torque and power combined”. Drivers and passengers experienced “high levels of comfort and refinement.”
If you stop in today at one of your local Mercedes-Benz retailers to test drive one of the vehicles, you’ll experience some of the technology that Kurt Oblander brought to cars during nearly four decades of loyalty to the company. Some of the innovations have been improved upon, but without Oblander, those innovations may never have existed in the first place.
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