The 1954 Formula One regulations permitted a naturally aspirated engine of up to 2.5 litres or a 0.75-litre supercharged unit. Mercedes engineers considered a supercharged option but concluded that a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated engine was the correct choice — a significant shift in philosophy, since all previous Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix engines since the 1920s had been supercharged. The expected competitive target was 250 to 300 bhp.
The solution was to adapt the direct fuel injection that Daimler-Benz engineers had refined on the DB 601 high-performance V12 used on the Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighter during World War II. The resulting 2,496.87 cc straight-8 engine featured a bore/stroke of 76 mm × 68.8 mm and desmodromic valves — making the W196 the first F1 car to use both technologies. At its debut at the 1954 French Grand Prix, the engine produced 257 bhp, with a target of 340 bhp at 10,000 rpm for the final specification.
The W196 was front mid-engined, with the longitudinally mounted engine placed just behind the front axles to improve front-to-rear weight distribution. The chassis was a welded aluminium tube spaceframe carrying ultra-light Elektron magnesium-alloy bodywork. Inboard drum brakes — too large to fit inside 16-inch wheel rims — were mounted via short half shafts and two universal joints per wheel. The front suspension used torsion bars within the frame tubes and double wishbones; the rear employed a low-roll-centre system with off-centred beams spanning from each hub to the opposite side of the chassis, crossing over the centreline to counter cornering lift. Despite this, snap-oversteer remained a characteristic at speed.
For the high-speed Reims circuit at the W196's debut, an aerodynamic closed-wheel aluminium streamliner body was introduced, later nicknamed the "Type Monza." Fangio and Karl Kling took a 1–2 finish, and Hans Herrmann set the fastest lap. The same body was used at the 1954 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the 1954 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, and the 1955 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. It won three races in total — the 1954 French Grand Prix, 1954 Italian Grand Prix, and 1955 Italian Grand Prix — all with Fangio driving. These remain the only Formula One races won by a closed-wheel car.
The streamliner's shape suited only high-speed circuits built around long straights and slow corners; at the corner-dominated Silverstone, Fangio hit oil barrels marking the track. A conventional open-wheel version was introduced for the 1954 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Fangio, who had opened the 1954 season by winning the first two Grands Prix in a Maserati 250F at Buenos Aires and Spa, won the German, Swiss, and Italian Grands Prix to secure his second World Championship.
At the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, the low-mounted air intake clogged with leaves, costing the race to Mike Hawthorn in a Ferrari, which led to the intake being relocated atop the bonnet.
In the shortened 1955 Formula One season — abbreviated following the Le Mans disaster — the W196 won every race except the Monaco Grand Prix, where Herrmann crashed in practice and the remaining three Mercedes cars failed to finish. A highlight of the season was Stirling Moss finishing 0.2 seconds ahead of Fangio at the British Grand Prix, his first Grand Prix win, with Mercedes taking the top four positions.
Fangio and Moss both described the W196 as difficult to drive. Writing in MotorSport magazine, Moss said: "I'm surprised that the Merc wasn't a little bit easier to drive, because it wasn't. It was a driver's car, but not an easy car to drive." Fangio, in the same publication in 1979, commented: "not so nice to drive as a Maserati 250F, but you were almost sure to finish. So the Mercedes was incredible in that way." 1970s/80s Formula One driver John Watson drove the W196 at Hockenheim and noted that "if you gave this car wider and grippier tyres and altered the suspension to suit, then the handling would be of a very high order indeed."
For the 1955 World Sportscar Championship, the W196 was adapted into a two-seat sports racer designated the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (W196S), sharing most of its drivetrain, chassis, and M196 engine. The 2,496.87 cc straight-8 was bored and stroked to 2,981.70 cc; despite a reduction in compression and the use of regular fuel, power output was broadly maintained, now delivered at lower revs and with greater reliability.
The 300 SLR won the 1955 Mille Miglia in just over ten hours. At the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, air brakes were fitted to address drum brake fade at the high-speed Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners. Mercedes led the race but withdrew its remaining cars following the catastrophic crash known as the 1955 Le Mans disaster. After a three-month summer break, wins at Nürburgring, Sweden, Dundrod, and the 1955 Targa Florio secured the World Sportscar Championship. The Le Mans crash led Mercedes to withdraw from all forms of competitive racing at the end of 1955, a hiatus that lasted three decades.
At the Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale on 12 July 2013, W196R chassis no. 196 010 00006/54 sold for a world record £19.7 million sterling ($29.6 million including auction premium), with the total bill reaching £20,896,800 after UK VAT on commission. It is the only W196R in private hands; all other surviving examples are held by Mercedes-Benz or institutional museums. This chassis was driven by Fangio to victory at the 1954 German and European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring and at the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix at Berne's Bremgarten circuit, wins that — combined with his earlier Maserati victories — clinched his second of five Formula One World Championship titles.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
