Very nice video (as always), and if you go the Silberpfeile route, there are tons and tons of great stories to tell. HOWEVER, the paint-scrapping tale as the origin of the Silver Arrow is not factual. This story first appeared in 1958, in Alfred Neubauer’s autobiography “Speed Was My Life”. It has become so widespread that even Mercedes officially acknowledges that story as the origin of the term. The actual facts were quite more boring. In the early 30s, the German national color for racing cars was either white or silver. In May 1934, Auto Union’s Typ A won the AVUSrennen, and Auto Union’s cars were never white, but always silver. Besides, the W25 was at AVUS in May, but Mercedes withdrew all three cars before the race due to technical issues. And more importantly, at AVUS the W25 was silver. Furthermore, Manfred von Brauchitsch on the AVUSrennen of 1932 piloted a streamlined silver SSKL called Silver Arrow in a live radio coverage. By the way, Mercedes built a replica of it in 2019… So the W25 was not the first German silver car to win a 1934 race, the W25 was seen in silver before the Eifelrennen and the term Silberpfeil was first used in 1932, all before the W125. However, the most critical fact is that the Eifelrennen of June 1934 was NOT a 750 kg Formula race. After the AVUSrennen in May, both Auto Union and Mercedes were struggling to adapt to the new formula. With the two brands being the stars of the show, the AIACR allowed the Eifelrennen to run under Formula Libre rules. And in Formula Libre there was no weight restrictions. Strangely, the story that Alfred Neubauer tells in his autobiography never surfaced before his book. Besides, the great Neubauer was very well known for his bombastic and colorful stories...
And excellent additional insights - if even the Germans won't let the truth get in the way of a good story (re: the paint weight thing), what hope is there for the rest of us? Haha
Very nice video (as always), and if you go the Silberpfeile route, there are tons and tons of great stories to tell. HOWEVER, the paint-scrapping tale as the origin of the Silver Arrow is not factual. This story first appeared in 1958, in Alfred Neubauer’s autobiography “Speed Was My Life”. It has become so widespread that even Mercedes officially acknowledges that story as the origin of the term. The actual facts were quite more boring. In the early 30s, the German national color for racing cars was either white or silver. In May 1934, Auto Union’s Typ A won the AVUSrennen, and Auto Union’s cars were never white, but always silver. Besides, the W25 was at AVUS in May, but Mercedes withdrew all three cars before the race due to technical issues. And more importantly, at AVUS the W25 was silver. Furthermore, Manfred von Brauchitsch on the AVUSrennen of 1932 piloted a streamlined silver SSKL called Silver Arrow in a live radio coverage. By the way, Mercedes built a replica of it in 2019… So the W25 was not the first German silver car to win a 1934 race, the W25 was seen in silver before the Eifelrennen and the term Silberpfeil was first used in 1932, all before the W125. However, the most critical fact is that the Eifelrennen of June 1934 was NOT a 750 kg Formula race. After the AVUSrennen in May, both Auto Union and Mercedes were struggling to adapt to the new formula. With the two brands being the stars of the show, the AIACR allowed the Eifelrennen to run under Formula Libre rules. And in Formula Libre there was no weight restrictions. Strangely, the story that Alfred Neubauer tells in his autobiography never surfaced before his book. Besides, the great Neubauer was very well known for his bombastic and colorful stories...
And excellent additional insights - if even the Germans won't let the truth get in the way of a good story (re: the paint weight thing), what hope is there for the rest of us? Haha
You actually pronounced von Brauchitsch right and Caracciola wrong
Ha, well that figures.