The legend behind the “silver arrow”: do you know why this name is associated with Mercedes?

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Car silver arrow It is an important part of the history of German Mercedes Benz cars. The history of motorsport was not the same since these cars appeared on the track. If you do not know what these cars were, you have missed a piece of the history of the exciting world of cars.

Today you are going to learn part of that history and you will know what is a silver arrow. You will learn part of its history and how its legend began.

What is the “silver arrow”?

It was the year 1934, it was the eve of the Eiffel race at the Nürburgring weighing station. Nobody imagined that this race was going to mark a new era in motorsport history. At the time the regulations did not allow the cars taking part in the race to weigh more than 750 kilos.

But the car that Mercedes Benz would present through the team manager Alfred Neubauer, had 1 kilo of more. The solution I chose to reduce that kilo, was to remove the paint, leaving exposed the aluminum of the bodywork, which shone like silver.

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On the day of the race, manfred von brauchitschbehind the wheel of the car from which the paint had been stripped, win unquestionably. Later before the press he said: ‘It has been a great honor to drive a silver arrow’ I would start from there a chain of successes that has been maintained over time Through Mercedes Benz and her silver arrows.

Its naked body and its silver color made the difference

It was the way the engineers managed to reduce his weight, which made him a 750 kilogram winner.: in 1934, this formula gave way to the birth of the legend of the Silver Arrowthe winner devoid of paint.

With the regulations, what the organizers were looking for was to reduce the power of the cars and, with it, their race speed. But they got exactly the opposite result. Mercedes-Benz engineers, taking advantage of this regulation, created a car that reached a higher speed despite a lower weight.

The Legend of the Silver Arrows

After the victory obtained in 1934 by Manfred von Brauchitsch, Silver Arrow’s winning streak continued. Name that would be given to these cars some time later thanks to the press. Victory after victory made legend the night that they would remove the paint from a car to bring it down to regulation weight and then would not stop winning.

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When the war came, the races were suspended and when the war ended, the winning streak continued and the silver arrows were still ahead of their time in motorsports:

Juan Manuel Fangio in the Formula 1 W 196 R car in 1954 and 1955 would get first place. He then absented himself from Formula One racing for 40 years, in the 1998 and 1999 World Championships with Mika Häkkinen Silver Arrows he won again and would regain the title.

The silver arrows were unstoppable and very fast, continuing the chain of successes. In 2008, Lewis Hamilton, in a McLaren-Mercedes, became the World Champion. The following year, Jenson Button won the World Championship for the Mercedes-Benz partner team Brawn GB.

In the 2012 season, Nico Rosberg wins at the Chinese Grand Prix. It represented the first victory of an official team of silver arrow since Juan Manuel Fangio’s in 1955 at Monza.