Legend of the Silver Arrows

[Valve Bounce]

It was awesome when they were yumping at speed.

[ioan]

I am sure there are many here who would disagree, starting with ioan I bet.

[Don Capps]

The History of the Silver Arrows

Doug and I sat next to each other -- "The English Corner" it was dubbed -- at the symposium that Daimler held in July of 2007. His article is a good summation of the fuss was about and the conclusions that we -- at least Doug, myself, and Reuss of those who were there -- came to as a result of both our prior research and what Daimler presented at the symposium. Interestingly enough, despite the clear weight of evidence -- much of it provided from tjheir own archives -- that the entire paint-scraping episode was a myth, there are still those at Daimler who persist in peddling this canard, which was dredged up and recycled when the MB F1 machine was introduced last year.

This is an excellent illustration of how history gets twisted which then after being endlessly repeated then becomes accepted as being "true." There is much more to the story than what Doug has in the short article, of course, but I maintain that those who continue to accept that it was mythology are reason enough alone to have more historians and "history-minded" people handling the history of motor racing than has been the case in the past.

[BDunnell]

Well, those who who think that our present day racers are feerless should try to see some footage of the Auto Union Years where Bernd Rosemeyer was an absolute star. In one race at the Nurnburgring, fog decended on the track and Bernd continued to lap at the same pace. Anyone who drove those monsters on those skinny tyres at those speeds were literally taking their lives into their hands each time they raced, and I have always admired Brend and rate him as the best Grand Prix driver ever.

I am sure there are many here who would disagree, starting with ioan I bet.

Starting with me, then, because a judgment is impossible to make.

[Rollo]

Those 16 cylinder Auto Unions were pushing 600 bhp at the time, using skinny tyres and virtually huge grip.

The Mercedes-Benz W125 put out 637bhp from its 5.6L supercharged in-line 8 engine. I don't think that that sort of power was exceeded until about 1981, when turbos meant that you could force-feed engines to the point of stupidity.

[Don Capps]

I have always had a personal opinion that the era of the "Silver Arrows" as being quite overrated, its aura being rather more a factor of nostalgia, selective memory, effective postwar public relations work by Daimler, and clever writing during the various journalists both during and after that period as well. This is not to say that it was not an interesting and fascinating period, far from it, but as is often the case, the closer one looks, the more one sees and the less -- for lack of a better term at the moment -- "glamorous" it all becomes. The popular memory of this period has been very much deliberately shaped by some and less intentionally by others, but the effect has been generally the same.

As I mentioned, while I do not genuflect before reading or writing anything regarding the era, do not approach it with a sense of awe, and regard the usual hyperbole with a bit of wry amusement, I do enjoy working in the era. Rosemeyer, Caracciola, Lang, Stuck, and Nuvolari were certainly exceptional drivers racing under conditions that were hazardous at best and fatal at worst, but much the same could be said for earlier years as well as those following.

If anything, the German domination during this era stifled Grand Prix racing, the number of events declining and the fields becoming less diverse.

Given that I can scarcely name more than a very few of the current crop of F1 drivers, much less know much about them, I am in no position to make any sort of comparisons beyond very rudimentary ones at best.

[Don Capps]

The Mercedes-Benz W125 put out 637bhp from its 5.6L supercharged in-line 8 engine. I don't think that that sort of power was exceeded until about 1981, when turbos meant that you could force-feed engines to the point of stupidity.

Of course, power ratings for the various versions of the Typ DA-B engines were recorded on the dynometer and not necessarily what was actually available, even though that was considerable by any measurement, especially for the time.