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Showing posts with label Mercedes Benz W154. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mercedes Benz W154. Show all posts

Monday, 29 August 2022

1939 Mercedes Benz W154

I took this photograph at the Donington Park Museum in May 1989.
It's a 1939 Mercedes Benz W154, sometimes known as a W163 though it's actually a 1938 W154 with the M154 engine replaced by the 1939 M163 unit.

During the Second World War Mercedes Benz had stored its racing cars in and around the factory at Unterturkheim, but later in the war when the allied bombing became more of a threat many of the cars were taken to other, less targeted places for safety. They were usually stored in pairs and this car, chassis W154/10, together with W154/9, was walled up in the workshops of Czech pre-war racing driver Antonin Vitvar in Stará Paka. After the war W154/9 ended up in the USA and W154/10 was handed over to the National Technical Museum of Prague. Many years later the car was sent to Tom Wheatcroft's workshops at Donington Park for restoration and then had a period on loan at the Museum.

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Mercedes-Benz W154

I photographed this car at the VSCC's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Donington Park in June 2008.
It's a 1939 Mercedes-Benz W154 from the Mercedes-Benz museum that had been taken to the event to complete a number of demonstration runs in the hands of Tony Dron.
The rules governing the running of the European Championship races for 1938 had been changed from a 750kg weight limit with no restriction on engine sizes to a maximum engine capacity of 4½ litres unsupercharged or 3 litres with a supercharger. The W154 was designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut based on the chassis of the previous year's W125 and used the 2,962cc supercharged V12 M154 engine. Three of the four European Championship races that year were won by three Mercedes-Benz drivers, Manfred von Brauchitsch, Richard Seaman and Rudolf Caracciola, with Tazio Nuvolari winning the final race in his Auto Union D-Type.
For the 1939 season the engine was modified to use a two-stage supercharger and designated as an M163 - for this reason the 1939 car is sometimes erroneously referred to as a Mercedes-Benz W163. The body was also given a sleeker, less bulbous look. Mercedes-Benz again won three of the four European Championship races, Hermann Lang winning two and Rudolf Caracciola one. The other race was again won by an Auto Union D-Type, this time driven by Hermann Müller.

Saturday, 29 September 2018

Mercedes Benz W154

Twice previously, on 13 October 2015 and 16 August 2017 I've shown photographs of the Mercedes Benz W154 that Tony Dron demonstrated at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Donington Park in June 2008. Here are three more photographs I took of the car that day.
Here's the car in the pit garage.....
.....and later being prepared for one of its demonstration runs.
Here's Tony Dron at Redgate Corner during one of the demonstration runs.

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

Mercedes-Benz W154

I recently showed a photograph of a 1939 Mercedes-Benz W154 in the museum at Donington Park where it was on display for a while after being restored in Tom Wheatcroft's workshops there for the National Technical Museum of Prague. On 13 October 2015 I showed photographs of another of these cars that Mercedes-Benz had taken to Donington Park in 2008 to make some demonstration runs during the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting. Here are three more photographs of the car I took at that meeting.
The photographs above and below were taken in the pit garage where the car was being prepared for the demonstration runs.

Here's Tony Dron at Redgate corner during one of the demonstration runs.

Thursday, 20 July 2017

Mercedes Benz W154

I took this photograph at the Donington Park Museum in May 1989.
It's a 1939 Mercedes Benz W154, sometimes known as a W163 though it's actually a 1938 W154 with the M154 engine replaced by the 1939 M163 unit.

During the Second World War Mercedes Benz had stored its racing cars in and around the factory at Unterturkheim, but later in the war when the allied bombing became more of a threat many of the cars were taken to other, less targeted places for safety. They were usually stored in pairs and this car, chassis W154/10, together with W154/9, was walled up in the workshops of Czech pre-war racing driver Antonin Vitvar in Stará Paka. After the war W154/9 ended up in the USA and W154/10 was handed over to the National Technical Museum of Prague. Many years later the car was sent to Tom Wheatcroft's workshops at Donington Park for restoration and then had a period on loan at the Museum.

Thursday, 28 July 2016

Mercedes Benz W125 & W154 at Oulton Park

On 3 April 2012 I showed photographs of the Mercedes Benz W125 that Colin Crabbe took to Oulton Park in 1970 and 1971, and I referred to the fact that in June 1958 Mercedes Benz had taken a W125 and also a W154 to the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park to be driven in demonstration runs by Peter Collins and Tony Brooks. Here are photographs of those cars I took that day returning to the paddock after one of those runs.
The 1937 Mercedes Benz W125
The 1939 Mercedes Benz W154 (sometimes called the W163)

Tuesday, 13 October 2015

Mercedes Benz W154

On 3 April 2012 I showed a photograph of a 1939 Mercedes Benz W154 which gave demonstration runs at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Donington Park in June 2008. Here are some photographs taken in the pit lane and pit garage of Tony Dron getting used to the car during the practice sessions on the morning of the meeting.
The photographs above and below show Tony Dron in the pit lane getting ready to take the car out onto the circuit..........

..........and here he is returning to the pits after his run..........
..........and getting out of the car in the pit garage.

I remember when I was young this car was always known as a W163, but it is now generally referred to as a W154. The 1938 car was designated the W154 and had an M154 engine, and the 1939 car is the 1938 car fitted with an M163 engine and a sleeker and more compact bodywork. The most obvious difference in the appearance of the 1939 car was that the nose was less bulbous than the previous year's model,

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

Early Memories and Mercedes Benz

I think it was the cutaway drawings of racing cars in The Eagle comic from 1950 onwards which first got me interested in motor racing. I remember later reading stories of the Mercedes Benz and Auto Union cars of the 1930s - the 'Silver Arrows' - and thinking how I'd have loved to have seen these cars in action.

In 1958, when I was 16 years old, Mercedes Benz sent 2 cars, a W125 of 1937 and a W154 of 1939 (at that time generally referred to as a W163) to the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy meeting at Oulton Park for Peter Collins and Tony Brooks to give demonstration runs. It was a time when car ownership wasn't as widespread as it is today and the only way to get to Oulton Park from where I lived (Denton, near Manchester) was to get a train from Manchester to Crewe, another train from Crewe to Beeston Castle, and then walk about 5 miles from there to the circuit. The only alternative was to do the whole journey (about 35 miles) by bicycle which I did quite a few times as a teenager, but on this occasion I chose the train and the walk. I did use my bike though to go to Manchester of the Friday afternoon after school as the cars were on display in the showroom of a Mercedes Benz dealer in Manchester.

Some 12 years later, in 1970, and then again in 1971, a W125 which had been discovered in (I think) East Germany by Colin Crabbe actually took part in the Richard Seaman Trophy race and in fact won on both occasions. The two photographs below are of the car at each of these meetings.




More recently, in 2007, Mercedes Benz sent a W125 to Donington Park, now the venue for the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy races and it gave a demonstration run driven by Tony Dron, seen below at McLeans corner.


For the 2008 meeting Mercedes Benz sent over to Donington Park one of the W154/163 cars which was again demonstrated by Tony Dron and the photograph below shows the car in the paddock with the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophy just in front of the windscreen.

The Auto Unions are another story and I'll come to that some other time.