A piece of history — The Silver Arrow rides again

LIME ROCK —How do you start  the engine on a rare, priceless, 70-year-old Mercedes-Benz race car? First, you fly in a mechanic from Germany.

A 1939 Mercedes-Benz W154 Silver Arrow made its American debut last week. It competed Saturday and Monday at the Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival. Earlier in the week, the press was invited to watch as the gleaming racer arrived and took a few laps around a race track — for the first time in nearly 50 years.

After 40 minutes of preparation, the engine roared to ear-splitting life.

Dick Crosthwaite, whose company, Crosthwaite & Gardiner Ltd. in England, did the engine restoration, warned that it was the loudest race car he had ever heard. Those without earplugs soon agreed.

Although this is one of the finest, fastest race cars in history, it was quite slow in arriving at the track. The media event was delayed by an hour as the team driving it down from Boston got stuck in traffic.

And it wasn’t just any traffic: The delay was caused by a small plane, which had made an emergency landing on Route 495, just south of Boston, closing down the southbound lanes.

The road has always been rocky for this legendary vehicle. It enjoyed only one season of racing, its career cut short by World War II. The last of 15 produced, it won 11 of 16 Grand Prix races. Its last race, the Yugoslavian Grand Prix in Belgrad, was on Sept. 3, 1939 — two days after the Nazis invaded Poland. Driver Manfred von Brauchitsch set a lap record that day, and brought the Silver Arrow over the finish line in second place.

The car was one of two shipped to Austria immediately after the race. It was hoped they would remain hidden but, apparently, Russian soldiers confiscated the vehicles and loaded them onto a train bound for their home country.

They never made it. In Romania, the cars were traded in for supplies.

The Silver Arrow was next seen in Romania in 1950, when it was entered in a hill climb, a treacherous type of race. The driver crashed the Mercedes.

“The driver’s family kept it. It probably sat in a barn for years,� said Scott George, who curates Miles Collier’s famed collection of more than 100 rare vintage vehicles in Naples, Fla. (including the Silver Arrow). “It was a good thing, though, because at least its whereabouts were known.�

Eventually, with the help of Mercedes-Benz, the car was acquired and rebuilt in the early 1990s. Collier bought it in 2003, and has spent the past two years restoring it.

The restoration was finished just days before it was shipped north to Lime Rock Park. A crew rolled it out of its trailer and began immediately preparing for a loop around the track. Dozens of cameras came at it from all angles. A video was made of the historic moment.

The 40-minute preparation process began with unlocking the wheels’ hubs. Towels were then placed around the fuel filler just behind the single seat, a wide and tufted, luxurious-looking curved bench in a cockpit so shallow the steering wheel has to be removed before the driver can get in or out.

The fuel mix is 85 percent methanol, 10 percent nitrous methane and 5 percent acetone. The car gets about 1.5 miles to the gallon. Its top speed is estimated at about 250 kilometers per hour.

There was much conferring on the issue of spark plugs at the car’s maiden voyage on the Lime Rock track. Various sets, carefully arrayed in individual cases, were readied for use in the 480 hp V12 engine. The cases were carried to the waiting vehicle like crown jewels, but what seemed like pageantry was simply care and respect for a spectacular piece of engineering, one of only seven known to still exist.

Which means, of course, that it is not just rare but also precious.

“There’s really no way to put a value on it,� George said. “You can’t insure a car like that for replacement value. It is priceless. But if I were to compare it to other rare cars, I’d have to say its worth more than $5 million.�

An initial start-up was done, with an electric crank inserted through a hole in the tiny, red-painted grill to turn the engine and get the oil and other fluids moving.

After a minute or so it was shut down, plugs were replaced and more tinkering followed. The engine was revved rhythmically to a third of its top speed of 8,300 rpms. A pan placed under the engine caught an outpouring of antifreeze. The crowd grew concerned. The team remained calm, knowing it meant simply that the engine had heated up to performance level impressively fast.

They also knew, of course, that the engine eventually runs too hot for antifreeze. The fuel mix keeps it from overheating at racing speeds.

The Silver Arrow, streaking around the track, was certainly a fitting start to the weekend of vintage car racing.

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