Monterey 2009: Lawn Darts - Silver Arrows hit target at Pebble Beach

[Bill Wood]

Filed under: Motorsports, Classics, Mercedes-Benz

Silver Arrows at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance - Click above for high-res image gallery

Mercedes-Benz has had more than their share of entrants in the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance over its 59 years. The classic Teutonic automaker has even had an overall winner or two in the Best of Show judging. This year the marque was honored in another special class, with a twist. The organizers invited Mercedes to bring a sampling of their Silver Arrows race cars, and the company obliged.

For fans of Grand Prix racing, the legend of the Silver Arrows is a memorable one. When the team showed up at a race way back in 1934, the new W25 GP cars were a bit over the maximum allowable weight. To save a few pounds, the team stripped off the white paint and ran the cars through tech again with just the bare metal skins. The cars met the weight requirements and raced on to a win. The press dubbed the cars "Silver Arrows" for their color and speed, and the name stuck.

One of those original 186-mph W25 race cars was on hand along with two of the 1939 W154 Grand Prix racers, a 1952 W194 Coupe (which led to the development of the 300SL Gullwing road cars) and the amazing 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Streamliner that the likes ofStirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio drove back in the day. It was a truly spectacular gathering of priceless historic race cars.

Check out our gallery below and the press release from Mercedes-Benz after the jump.


Gallery: Silver Arrows at Pebble Beach



Photos copyright (C)2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.Continue reading Monterey 2009: Lawn Darts - Silver Arrows hit target at Pebble Beach

Monterey 2009: Lawn Darts - Silver Arrows hit target at Pebble Beach originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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08-19-2009 11:40 AM