Icons of Speed

Five historic Silver Arrows were on the field at this year’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance

Article Stephan McKeown

Information Daimler Press Material and Archives

Images Denis L. Tanney

Sometimes, small actions truly can have lasting consequences. When Manfred von Brauchitsch first drove a rebodied Mercedes-Benz SSKL – a pioneering streamlined, unpainted automotive apparition quickly dubbed “The Gherkin” by spectators because of its unusual appearance – to victory at the 1932 AVUS race in Berlin, a German radio broadcaster reporting on the race from trackside was inspired to invent the phrase “Silver Arrow” in an attempt to help listeners at home picture the swift vehicle for themselves.

1932 SSKL "Gherkin"
The first Silver Arrow

Two years later, the Mercedes-Benz racing team reintroduced this potent descriptive term during the official presentation of its new 1934 W25 racecar – revealed to the press unpainted in bare metal. Thus began the first, glorious era of the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows – the famous racing and speed record cars of the 1930s that so captured the public’s imagination.

This acclaimed name would accompany the team through the victories of the 1950s and beyond. In the 1980s, new life was breathed into the tradition when the Silver Arrows once again began competing in international motorsports, setting the stage for today’s record-breaking Mercedes-AMG Silver Arrows F1 team.

Mercedes-Benz displayed five eras of historic Silver Arrows together at the 2020 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance: a 1934 Mercedes-Benz W25, a 1938 Mercedes-Benz W154, a 1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 R “Streamliner,” a 1989 Sauber-Mercedes C9, and a 2014 Mercedes-AMG W05 Hybrid.

Just as dawn broke on Concours day, catching these storied racecars being uncovered before the crowds appeared, The Star’s photographer Denis L. Tanney slipped out onto the show field to capture informal portraits of some of the most legendary motorsports machines ever created.

1934–1936 Mercedes-Benz W25

On the field at Amelia Island was the car that Manfred von Brauchitsch drove to victory in its debut at the Eifelrennen on June 3, 1934, ensuring that the team’s recent adoption of the Silver Arrows name would remain forever linked with Mercedes-Benz. Built to comply with a 750kg minimum weight formula designed to lower race speeds, the W25’s advanced 32-valve, supercharged, inline 8-cylinder, dual overhead camshaft engine was intended to produce 280 hp – above that of its main rivals. However, actual output was a massive 354 hp. The W25 scored 16 major victories.

RACED: 1934-1936 • CHASSIS NUMBER: 105194 • ENGINE NUMBER: M 25A

ENGINE: 3,364 cc, DOHC 8-cylinder inline, Roots supercharged, carbureted

POWER: 354 hp at 5,800 rpm (later 494 hp at 5,800 rpm)

TRANSMISSION: 4-speed manual • CHASSIS: Lightened box-section frame

SUSPENSION: Double wishbone with coil springs (front), Independent swing axle, transverse half-elliptical leaf springs (rear)

CURB WEIGHT: 1,863 lbs • MAXIMUM SPEED: 186 mph

1938-1939 Mercedes-Benz W154

A new three-liter Grand Prix formula was introduced for 1938. To power its elegant new W154 racecar, Mercedes-Benz developed a potent supercharged V-12 engine with four overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. The W154 shown at Amelia Island – part of The Collier Collection of Naples, Florida – made but a single race appearance. Manfred von Brauchitsch drove it to second place at the Grand Prix of Belgrade on September 3, 1939, the very day that World War II broke out, ending Grand Prix racing until after the conflict. For more on the W154, see the article beginning on page 44.

RACED: 1938-1939

CHASSIS NUMBER: 15 (1939 season)

ENGINE NUMBER: K3 (M163)

ENGINE: 2,962 cc DOHC (2 per bank) V-12, twin Roots 2-stage supercharged, carbureted

POWER: 483 hp at 7,800 rpm  •  TRANSMISSION: 5-speed manual

CHASSIS: Tubular ladder frame

SUSPENSION: Double wishbone with coil spring (front)

de Dion with torsion bars (rear)

CURB WEIGHT: 2,158 lbs 

MAXIMUM SPEED: 205 mph

1954–1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 R Streamliner

The W196 R Streamliner – Daimler-Benz’s first postwar formula racing car – won its initial race, the 1954 French GP at Reims, with Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling taking 1-2. The body offered less of an aerodynamic advantage in the next contest at Silverstone, resulting in the development of an open-wheeled version. The car seen at Amelia Island was driven to victory in the Grand Prix of Buenos Aires by Fangio as an open-wheeler; Sir Stirling Moss piloted the same car as a streamliner at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The W196 R won nine victories in twelve Grand Prix races.

RACED: 1954-1955 • CHASSIS NUMBER: 9 (1955 season)

6 cc DOHC (per block, desmodromic) 8 cylinder in-line, direct injection

POWER: 265 hp at 8,260 rpm (later 290 hp at 8,500 rpm)

TRANSMISSION: 5-speed manual • CHASSIS: Tubular space frame

SUSPENSION: Double wishbone, torsion bar springs (front)

                          Independent swing axle, torsion bar springs (rear)

CURB WEIGHT: 1,824 lb • MAXIMUM SPEED: 186+ mph

1989 Sauber-Mercedes C9

Mercedes-Benz returned to motorsports in 1988, deepening a partnership with the Swiss Sauber Team begun in 1985. This joint effort produced the Sauber-Mercedes C9, winner of five races in the 1988 world championship series. For 1989, the Group C car was fitted with a new Mercedes-Benz engine and its body was painted silver: the Silver Arrows were racing once again. In 1989 the Sauber-Mercedes C9 won the Le Mans 24-hour race against fierce rivals and a total of seven out of eight world championship races. The C9 shown at Amelia Island took second at LeMans in 1989.

RACED: 1987–1989 Group C Racing

ENGINE: 4,973 cc  90° V-8

POWER: 720hp at 7,000 rpm

TRANSMISSION:

5-speed manual in unit with differential gear, mounted behind rear axle

CURB WEIGHT: 1,995 lb

MAXIMUM SPEED: 186+ mph

2014 Mercedes–AMG W05 Hybrid

A radical new hybrid era began in Formula 1 in 2014. The new rule book engendered the innovative Mercedes-AMG W05 Hybrid racecar, the first ground-up, all-new Silver Arrow to reach the starting grid since the double World Championship-winning W196 R of 1954-1955. The 2014 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team swept to victory in that year’s World Constructors’ Championship and helped Lewis Hamilton to win his second World Drivers’ Championship title. This record-breaking season wrote the F1 W05 Hybrid indelibly into the pages of Mercedes-Benz motorsport history.

RACED: 2014–2015

CHASSIS: Molded carbon fiber & honeycomb composite structure

ENGINE: 1,598 cc  90° V-6 turbocharged

POWER: 580hp

TRANSMISSION:

8-speed Xtrac semi-automatic seamless with shift sequential gearbox

CURB WEIGHT: 1,523 lb