Mercedes Silver

[Dare]

Does anyone know how  Mercedes started using
silver as their color?Surprised me

[John S]

Does anyone know how  Mercedes started using
silver as their color?Surprised me

It dates back to the 30's Dare when both Mercedes and Auto Union left their cars with unpainted bare metal aluminium sheets showing (some say to stay underweight - but no limits applied in the regs at the time), giving rise to the term "Silver arrows". On their return to motor racing in the 50's Mercedes continued using silver as their colour.

The official colour for Germany in motor racing was white which is how BMW came to adopt it in the 60's as their colour. Porsche following Mercedes adopted silver in the 60's. Audi which is a follow on from the old Auto Union also use silver as the house colour in racing.

National colours were given in about 1900 in motor racing for the Gordon Bennett Cup races. France got blue, Belgium yellow, Germany white and USA red, later GB got dark green. Italy took over red in the 20's with Alfa Romeo & Maserati in European racing which is how Ferrari became red along with other Italian teams in the 50's.

[Dare]

A little more on how and why John


The new Silver Arrows Formula One works team was presented in Stuttgart today and though there were no surprises, the line-up was nonetheless formidable. Take a world championship winning team (Brawn F1 2009), add to it substantial long term sponsorship from Petronas, the full weight of Mercedes Benz management, finances and engineering (with the emphasis on engine - the title engine of the last two years) and then slot in the winningest F1 driver in history, and you have a pretty impressive line-up. The most ominous aspect of it all though is that the pairing of Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher is back together. It won two titles at Benetton, reestablished the Ferrari dynasty then Brawn created his own history last year. The car remains under a shroud of secrecy until its track debut next week.

Seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher was the star of the show, but the dream team line-up assembled was remarkably impressive. Number two driver, Nico Rosberg and team management Ross Brawn, Nick Fry and Norbert Haug were introduced to 600 guests with a presentation and press conference at the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

The only really unknown factor revealed in Stuttgart at the launch of the team was the unveiling of the new Silver Arrows livery. In actual fact, the colour scheme is silver and green livery created from the heritage of the Silver Arrows and the team’s title partner PETRONAS.

The legacy of the Silver Arrows goes back to the 1934 Eifel Race when, on the evening before the event, the white paint was sanded off the Mercedes W25 race car to get the car under the 750kg weight limits of the formula and the silver colour of the aluminium surface of the car became synonymous with the Mercedes brand.

Though Mercedes has been the engine and money behind the British McLaren marque for many years, it hasn't been a true Mercedes Benz effort, and with the purchase of Brawn F1, it now is a full factory effort.

This season, with the return of the Silver Arrows, the MGP W01 will shine in silver combined with a flow of iridescent silver shading. On the nose and on other parts of the car traces of black carbon fibre visible are visible – a reminder of the first Silver Arrow of 1934.

[John S]

Well that sounds like someone may be rewriting history as this appears on Wikipedia under the subject of the Silver Arrows and it gives first use of bare metal in 1932.


"A story exists that the origin of the Silver Arrows was accidental. The international governing body of motor sport prescribed for 1934 onwards a maximum weight limit of 750 kilograms for Grand Prix racing cars, excluding tyres and fuel.

It is said that when in spring 1934 the Mercedes-Benz team placed its new Mercedes-Benz W25 on the scrutineering scales prior to the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring, it allegedly recorded 751 kg (1,656 lb). Racing manager Alfred Neubauer and his driver Manfred von Brauchitsch, who both later published their memories, claimed that they had the idea of scraping all the white paint from the bodywork.
 
The story continues that next day the shining silver aluminium beneath was exposed and scrutineering was passed. After the 350 hp (260 kW) car of v. Brauchitsch won the race, the nickname Silver Arrow was born, according to the legend.

However, this story did not appear until Alfred Neubauer's biography was published in 1958, and no reference to it has been found in contemporary sources. It since has been established that von Brauchitsch in 1932 had raced a streamlined SSKL on the AVUS which was called Silver Arrow in live radio coverage. Also, in 1934, both Mercedes and Auto Union had entered the Avusrennen, but the Mercedes cars were not able to start, and Auto Union did not succeed either. The next big event was the Eifelrennen, but as few cars complying to the new rules were ready, it was held for Formule Libre, so weight was no issue at that time."

[Dare]

Sounds like someone beefed the story up doesn't
it.Does make for a better reason though