- Silver Arrows
Silver Arrows (in German Silberpfeile) was the name given by the press to Germany's dominant
Mercedes-Benz andAuto Union Grand Prix motor racing cars between 1934 and 1939, and also later applied to theMercedes-Benz Formula One and sports cars in 1954/55.For decades until the introduction of sponsorship liveries, each country had its traditional color in automobile racing. Italian race cars are still famous for their
Rosso Corsa red color, British ones are British Racing Green, French blue, etc.German cars like the
Blitzen-Benz were white. For example, the big supercharged 200 hpMercedes-Benz SSK with whichRudolf Caracciola won the 1931Mille Miglia was called "White Elephant".A story exists that the origin of the Silver Arrows was accidental. The international governing body of motor sport prescribed for 1934 onwards a maximum weight limit of 750
kilogram s for Grand Prix racing cars, excluding tyres and fuel. When the Mercedes-Benz team placed its newMercedes-Benz W25 on the scrutineering scales prior to the first race (theEifelrennen at theNürburgring ) in spring 1934, it allegedly recorded 751 kg. Racing managerAlfred Neubauer and his driverManfred von Brauchitsch were at first baffled, before allegedly hitting on the idea of scraping all the white paint from the bodywork. The story continues that next day the shining silver aluminium beneath was exposed and scrutineering was passed. After a successful race of the 320 hp cars, the nickname Silver Arrow was born, according to the legend. However, this story did not appear until Alfred Neubauer's biography was published in 1958, and no reference to it has been found in contemporary sources. Furthermore, Neubauer cannot reasonably be considered a reliable source, considering his fictitious account of the 1933 Tripoli Grand Prix.Until 1937, the supercharged engine of a
Mercedes-Benz W125 attained an output of 646 hp (475 kW), a figure not exceeded in Grand Prix Racing until the early 1980s, with the appearance of turbo-charged engines inFormula One . The Silver Arrows of Mercedes and Auto Union cars reached speeds of well over 300 km/h in 1937, and well over 400 km/h during land speed record runs.The superiority of these vehicles in international motor racing established the term "Silver Arrow" as a legend, for example by usually winning the first race in which they were entered. The names
Rudolf Caracciola ,Bernd Rosemeyer ,Hermann Lang , and laterStirling Moss andJuan Manuel Fangio , will forever be associated with the eras of these racing cars.Mercedes-Benz recalled its great past in the 1970s with rallye cars, and in the 1980s with the
Sauber sportscars as well as the DTM touring cars. In 1995 and 1996, theMcLaren-Mercedes F1 cars were still painted in the red&white colors of Marlboro but in 1997, West brought silver and black colors. As its predecessors did, the new "silver arrow" won on its first appearance, inMelbourne withDavid Coulthard . The latest incarnation of the McLaren-Mercedeslivery further continues this tradition by being dominated by highly reflective chrome-silver.Now a traditional colour for road-cars in reference to the "Silver Arrows", most German car companies have a shade of silver in their catalogues conforming to Silberpfeil-Grau, or "Silver Arrow Grey".
Other German companies, like
Porsche andBMW , still favour mainly the traditional white, whileAudi also uses silver to carry on the tradition ofAuto Union .At the 1999
Le Mans 24 Hours , a total of seven Silver Arrows were entered in theLe Mans Prototype class:
*three infamousMercedes-Benz CLR
*two British-built LM-GT1Audi R8C
*twoJoest Racing LMPAudi R8R that scored third and fourth.Further reading
* Chris Nixon, "Racing the Silver Arrows: Mercedes-Benz versus Auto Union 1934-1939" (Osprey, London, 1986) pp. 30-37, 164-168
External links
* [http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/silver.htm Grand Prix History] , Die Silberpfeile
* [http://www.stasher.us/the_silver_arrows.htm The Silver Arrows]
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