At a time when the company was financed by the Swiss-based Mimram brothers, Lamborghini began development of what was codenamed Project 132 in June 1985 as a replacement for the Countach model. The brief stated that its top speed had to be at least 315 km/h.
In early Mercedes-Benz history, the "S-Class" designation was used colloquially, referring to the letter "S" which designated most of the larger six-cylinder powered vehicles in the company's lineup (but not the luxurious V8-powered 600 limousine). In typical Mercedes-Benz fashion introduced in the late 1920s, the traditional designation of each car consisted of three numbers indicating engine size (up to 770 in the 1930s), and optional letters indicating either engine features ("260D" since the first Diesel of 1936) or body styles ("K" for kompressor (typically a Roots compressor) as in the 1930s 500K or 540K). After World War II, these codes were often carried over from one generation to the next.