Racing Silver Arrows

This is a history of the epic battles in the 1930s between the supercharged Grand Prix cars of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union. The picture book presents a comprehensive portrait of the golden age of motor racing.

Motor sports.

The battle in Grand Prix racing between the German Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams during the six years from 1934 through 1939 was probably the greatest, most spectacular and most important era in motor racing history. The two German teams almost completely dominated Grand Prix racing, mainly because of their technical superiority. This superiority was made possible by the vast sums that the two teams could expend on racing. The money paid to them by the German government was not a direct subsidy, but represented the generous margin above cost incorporated in government contracts. In effect, while Mercedes-Benz developed and manufactured aero engines for the Luftwaffe, the Auto Union Group manufactured tanks and other armored vehicles for the Wehrmacht.

This is the story of Mercedes-Benz’s involvement in motorsport, from the first road trial in 1894, through the little-documented rallying exploits in the 1960s, to the McLaren-Mercedes partnership dominating Formula 1 today. Packed with historical and technical detail, this large-format, lavishly-illustrated book has a strong anecdotal content, including new interviews with drivers from the 1930s and 1950s. There are author interviews with Manfred von Brauchitsch, aged 94, Karl Kling, 90, Hans Herrmann, 72, and Britain’s favorite racer Sir Stirling Moss. The book covers the post-war revival including the sports coupés that won Le Mans in 1952, the sensational 300SLR racers, and the W196 grand prix cars. Also covered are the Juan Manuel Fangio/Moss partnership, and the famous 1955 Moss/Jenkinson Mille Miglia victory; Formula 1 with Sauber, then McLaren, with profiles of the team principals and drivers; and the US CART Championship and special relationship with the works Penske team. The book contains international race results and key driver biographies.

Lewis Hamilton's record-breaking achievements in F1 are the latest successes in a glorious motor sport record for Mercedes and Benz that stretches back to the very first races in the 1890s. For the first time, this book tells the story of Mercedes in motor sport from the very beginning, with those pioneers of the 19th century, right through to today's hybrid F1 cars. It covers the triumphs and disasters, from the early Grand Prix machines and the extraordinarily advanced and massively powerful racers of the 1930s to the highs of F1, Le Mans and Mille Miglia glory and the sorrow of the 1955 Le Mans disaster. The story is brought right up to date, tracing Mercedes victories in sports car racing, Indycar, F1 and Formula E – and this book celebrates the achievements of some of the world's greatest drivers, from Caracciola, Fangio and Moss to Hakkinen, Unser and Hamilton.

The Mercedes sports-prototype of the late 1980s arguably came closer than any other car of the era to recapturing the spirit of the original 'Silver Arrows' of the 1930s. This stunning, fully enclosed, twin turbo, V8 sports-racing car took on the might of Porsche and Jaguar, and, notwithstanding opposition from the likes of Aston Martin, Nissan and Toyota, beat them all! This book is a detailed analysis of the famous C9 racing car, built by the Swiss firm of Sauber, which brought the might of Mercedes back into international motor racing for the first time in over thirty years. The author was present at the time and enjoyed the keen cooperation of the engineers at the heart of the project.

The heart-pounding story of an unlikely band of ragtags who took on Hitler's Grand Prix driver. In the years before World War II, Adolf Hitler wanted to prove the greatness of the Third Reich in everything from track and field to motorsports. The Nazis poured money into the development of new race cars, and Mercedes-Benz came out with a stable of supercharged automobiles called Silver Arrows. Their drivers dominated the sensational world of European Grand Prix racing and saluted Hitler on their many returns home with victory.As the Third Reich stripped Jews of their rights and began their march toward war, one driver, René Dreyfus, a 32-year-old Frenchman of Jewish heritage who had enjoyed some early successes on the racing circuit, was barred from driving on any German or Italian race teams, which fielded the best in class, due to the rise of Hitler and Benito Mussolini.So it was that in 1937, Lucy Schell, an American heiress and top Monte Carlo Rally driver, needed a racer for a new team she was creating to take on Germany's Silver Arrows. Sensing untapped potential in Dreyfus, she funded the development of a nimble tiger of a new car built by a little-known French manufacturer called Delahaye. As the nations of Europe marched ever closer to war, Schell and Dreyfus faced down Hitler's top drivers, and the world held its breath in anticipation, waiting to see who would triumph.