The Silver Arrows fame has its roots not only in the pre-war period for Mercedes and Auto Union, but also from the time after the Second World War but this time only for Mercedes. First, however after that it does not look at all.

Particularly important is probably that the people involved were still alive and are capable of action, albeit in the person ofracing manager Alfred Neubauer slimmed down considerably. First of all he takes balance in the factory ruins, of what is left over and with consideration manage it, to dispose again over four W154 racing cars and two W165. More and more important as leader of the experiment is Rudolf Uhlenhaut.

Rudolf Caracciola is already available as a racing driver, accompanied by the now more than competitive Karl Kling. Particularly important for Mercedes is the engagement of the exceptionally gifted Juan Manuel Fangio. He gets 1954 partially and 1955 completely on Mercedes the drivers' world championship. One ties in again with the Silver Arrow tradition.

In the meantime it is also the legendary W196 (picture) as a successor of the prewar W154. Indeed, it has done fairly well in its first races, but is too heavy and there is now a restriction of the displacement to 2,5 liter, the new construction will better serve. A tubular space frame ensures less weight. There are versions with self-contained wheels for curvaceous and formed aerodynamically favorable for high-speed lines.

Actually, not only the basics of racing successes will be defined, but also for models like the 300 SL with similar construction. For Uhlenhaut itself are built even two coupes, that not only have the tubular space frame, but also take over the engine in a slightly throttled form. Much more important for the race is the labeled '300 SLR' road version of the W196. 10/11