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Mercedes Silver Arrow Headlines Vintage Racers at Lime Rock

Posted on 07. Nov, 2009 by admin in BENZ

This weekend, Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn., will host its 27th annual Vintage Festival. More than 270 vintage racecars are expected to compete, but none is more anticipated than a 1939 Mercedes-Benz W 154 Silver Arrow Grand Prix car, which event organizers say, was last driven on a circuit 70 years ago.

“This is an extraordinary artifact,” Murray Smith told the Litchfield County Times.

The car is owned by the Collier Collection, a private historic sports car collection in Naples, Fla. Mr. Smith, the event chairman of the Vintage Festival, was instrumental in bringing it to Lime Rock. “This is a very tricky, sophisticated car to run,” he explained. “In 1937, they could reach 240 miles an hour and the average track speed was 172 miles per hour.”

Silver Arrow was the nickname given to the Mercedes-Benz (and Auto Union) Grand Prix cars from 1934-’39. The name was later used for the Mercedes Formula One and sports cars that ran from 1954-’55. This year, Mercedes celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Silver Arrow racers at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.

According to Mr. Smith, the W 154 Silver Arrow last ran in 1939 at the Yugoslavian Grand Prix. It was driven by Manfred von Brauchitsch, who finished second, while setting the fastest lap.

Earlier this week, Gert Straub, a test driver and engineer for Mercedes-Benz, drove the Silver Arrow around the 1.53-mile track at Lime Rock. Despite its age, the car’s supercharged 3.0-liter V-12 engine makes around 500 horsepower and is said to be capable of nearly 200 miles an hour.

The Silver Arrow will not compete in the weekend’s races, but visitors to the Vintage Festival will be able to the see (and hear) the Silver Arrow fire up and turn laps around Lime Rock on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Tags: Silver Arrow