Mercedes scrapped the car’s paint overnight to win the race! Mercedes’ white car became ‘Silver Arrow’?

Today, Mercedes-Benz is known for its royal ‘silver’ color. This color is the global identity of not only Mercedes cars, but also their Formula One racing team. But you might be surprised to know that this iconic color was not conceived by any designer, but was born out of one night of vulnerability in 1934, when it took to win a race and meet the weight rule.

That strict rule of 1934

The story is from June 1934. The ‘International Eiffel Race’ was organized on the famous ‘Nurbering’ track in Germany. A new and strict rule was introduced by the international organization for this race. As a rule, the weight of the car participating in the race (without fuel, oil and tires) should not exceed 750 kg. This rule was made to control the speed of cars and accidents.

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Increased weight of Mercedes

Mercedes company had prepared its new and powerful car ‘W25’ for this race. When the car was officially weighed on June 2, 1934, the day before the race, the Mercedes team was shocked. The weight of the Mercedes car was 751 kilograms, that is, only one kilogram more than the norm!

Mercedes would have been disqualified from the race for being only 1 kg overweight. It was not possible to reduce the weight by removing the engine or any other technical part from the car, as it would have affected the performance of the car.

‘Alfred Neighbor‘ His idea and that historic night

Mercedes racing team manager ‘Alfred Naebor’ and their chief driver ‘Manfred von Brachts’ sat up at night thinking about how to lose weight. Then a strange idea came into his head.

At that time the official color of Germany’s racing cars was ‘white’, as was Italy’s red and Britain’s green. Mercedes cars also had a thick layer of white paint. Naybor thought, what if we removed this whole color?

That night Mercedes mechanics and craftsmen gathered in the garage. He took a hand scraper and started scraping the white paint of the entire car. After a long night of tireless work, the car was completely stripped of its paint. There was no paint on the car anymore, only the car’s original shiny aluminum ‘bodywork’ was exposed.

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‘Silver Arrow‘The birth and historic triumph of

When the car was weighed again the next morning, it weighed exactly 750 kg. Mercedes car qualified for the race!

Lacking paint, the aluminum silver car flashed like a silver arrow when it hit the track. Manfred von Brachts drove the car very fast and won the race. Newspapers and spectators dubbed the glittering silver cars as ‘Silver Arrows’.

Mercedes’ aggressive move to comply with the kilo weight rule gave the automobile world its most popular color yet. This journey that started with scraping the white paint overnight has become the biggest reputation and identity of the Mercedes brand today!