2019-10-01_CAR_UK

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

WWW.WARRANTYWISE.CO.UK

Retro 0800 121 4801

tech

Mercedes-Benz celebrates 125 years in racing, and some winning

technological brainboxery along the way. By James Taylor

Dominant Merc racers

1994

2019

1938: Record-smashing streamliner

Mercedes and Auto Union’s racing rivalry spills onto

the (closed) autobahn in a speed-record tug o’ war.

Mercedes’ sculptural W125 Rekordwagen punches the

bar up to 268mph. Replacing the regular radiator with a

100kg icebox means no need for a big hole at the front,

and an ice-slippery 0.17 drag coefficient.

1994: Loophole in one

Old IndyCar rules allowing pushrod engines to run

higher displacement and boost were left untouched

because, well, surely no manufacturer would be so

committed to Indy 500 glory they’d develop a new

pushrod engine from scratch... would they?

Ilmor and Mercedes call

the organisers’ bluff,

summoning 1024bhp

from the Penske PC23’s

3.4-litre V8.

2019: Lewis’s winning formula

In the time it takes to say

Mercedes-AMG F1 W10 EQ

Power+ it’s probably won

another race, probably in

Lewis Hamilton’s hands.

The XL floor of 2019’s

longest car generates

huge downforce. Rivals

expected its

length to hinder

it at Monaco; it

won there too.

The 1.6-litre V6

is claimed to

be the world’s

most thermally

efficient

petrol engine.

1955: Moss and Jenks’ history-maker

Mercedes transfers F1 tech to the World Sports Car

Championship. It squeezes an extra seat into the W196 F1

car’s aluminium spaceframe and liberates more power from

its fuel-injected straight-eight with desmo valves. There’s

also a magnesium alloy body and inboard

brakes. Stirling Moss, with navigator Denis

Jenkinson, averages nearly

98mph for 1000 miles to

win the Mille Miglia.

1934: Dawn of the

Silver Arrows

You know the story: pre-race, Mercedes discovers its new

W25 is too porky for the 750kg weight limit and sands the

paint back to bare aluminium, inspiring the now traditional

silver livery. Of more note is the W25’s supercharged straight-

eight, which by 1937 is developing 630bhp. This before disc

brakes and mandatory crash helmets, naturally.

1995: It’s complicated

The height of touring car racing’s technological free-for-all,

and some of the most complex racing cars ever made. The

C-Class racers fighting in the DTM and ITC (International

Touring Car Championship) get ABS, traction control, active

anti-roll bars, automatic sliding radiator covers to balance

cooling and drag through a lap (and the following year, even

motorised ballast to adjust weight distribution on the fly).

1909:

Hail Blitzen

Karl Benz isn’t

actually all that

keen on racing;

luckily his Benz

board members feel differently and spur development of the

gargantuan 21.5-litre, four-cylinder (50bhp per pot), chain-

driven Blitzen-Benz (Lightning Benz). The hitherto unbroken

200km/h (124mph) barrier is uncharted territory no more.

1909

1934

CAR, ISSN 0008-5987, USPS 9287, is published 12 times a year by H Bauer Publishing, Media House, Lynchwood, Peterborough PE2 6EA, UK. The US annual subscription price is $123.86. Airfreight and mailing in the USA

by agent named WN Shipping USA, 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to CAR, WN Shipping USA, 156-15,

146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Subscription records are maintained at Bauer Media Subscriptions, CDS Global, Tower House, Sovereign Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough, Leics, LE16 9EF, UK. Air

Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent. H Bauer Publishing is registered in England and Wales, company number LP003328. Registered address: Academic House, 24-28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DT.

The UK’s Best Used Car Warranty

1938

1955

1995

Boxing clever: ’95 DTM racer a

tech-fest under its blocky body

Rudolf Caracciola

on his way to

(another) win in

his W25