Mercedes is coming to the Goodwood Festival of Speed
to celebrate the 125th anniversary of its motorsports career with a total of 13
motorsport heroes, including a faithfully reconstructed SSKL, one of the first
“Silver Arrows” that also won the 1932 Avus race. This unique race car is
considered to be the link between the earlier “White Elephants” of the late
1920s and the Silver Arrows that first appeared in 1934. The SSKL was first
named the Silver Arrow by a radio reporter when he saw its streamlined body at
the Avus race in 1932.
Mercedes-Benz Classic reconstructed the SSKL to a
high standard of historical authenticity, following tons of research and
preliminary planning. Work on the car that will debut at this year’s Festival
of Speed begun in January 2019.
The company’s engineers had to study the original
drawings of the SSKL in order to be faithful. The original SSKL was based on
the SSK, but its chassis was drilled in specific areas to make it 125 kg lighter. In addition, the streamlined bodywork was recreated after researching
the company’s archives as well as those at Schloss Fachsenfeld, which engineer
Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld transferred to a foundation in 1982.
The recreated SSKL will be on show as a static
exhibit, but Mercedes-Benz Classic will prepare it for on-track driving on the
following months. Alongside the SSKL, Mercedes will bring legends like the W125 and the
W196 R, the 300 SLR, the 190E 2.6-16 Evo II DTM touring car, the Sauber
Mercedes C9 and more.
