Sep 23

200 MPH in 1934?!

I have a December 1934 issue of Motorsport magazine from the UK. It has a recap of the year’s Motorsport headlines. Some very interesting stuff, especially this: I knew of the “Silver Arrow” Grand Prix cars but never knew that Mercedes Benz built a closed body car for speed runs. It beat the previous flying mile record by almost 50mph!

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Sep 23, 2026

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Replies (33)

· Sep 24

Travis, childs play! In 1936 MB went even faster at 269mph. They were using the autobahn to set speed records.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a22593289/the-mercedes-benz-w125-rekordwagen-hit-269-mph-80-years-ago/

· Sep 24

This one still exists but was only good for 236 mph.

· Sep 24

Getting 200mph with only a 4-liter engine in a 750kg car was impressive.

· Sep 24

Travis, I think it all had to do with the twin blowers smashing a pile of fuel in there.

· Sep 24

I would say so. Boost is our friend.

· Sep 25

Yup. Sea level air pressure is (close to) 14psi.
For every 14psi (1 bar) of boost that you cram in, you almost double the engine's displacement (volumetric efficiency is never 100%).

· Sep 25

Don't forget, the blower whine is super cool too!

· Sep 25

I can never forget blower whine. I have a car that spins a roots blower over 17k rpm’s, it won’t let me forget it. It’s a hell of a noise.

· Sep 25

When a 500K/540K first starts the blower whines until the oil heats up enough for the clutch to disengage, then you only hear it when you engage it. Guys pay a lot of money so they can hear the blower engage.

YouTube ↗

· Sep 24

You know it’s bad when people are actually surprised that your cars haven’t killed anyone yet. And in fact, the yearly highlights mention rather nonchalantly that one of Scuderia Ferrari’s Alfa drivers was killed.

· Sep 24

Grand Prix Racing and auto racing in general during that era was 10x more dangerous than today.

· Sep 24

Absolutely. I’m pretty sure drivers didn’t say “when I finish the race”, they said “if I finish the race.”

· Sep 24

Travis, for lots of great stuff on prewar Mercedes check out this topic in the CCCA forum:

https://classiccarclub.org/forums/2016/topics/14418

· Sep 24

The article mentions the Napier Railton. What an awesome car.

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· Sep 24

W12!

· Sep 24

It’s a crazy engine design. Four valves per cylinder. I would try to figure out the firing order but I’m afraid it might break my brain.

· Sep 24

Looks like a standard four throw flat plane crank like an inline 4. Surprisingly no counterweights.

· Sep 24

I need an engineer to explain whether the triad connecting rods would yield different output in the left and right banks vs the center. It should make a difference because the pistons on the swinging rods would accelerate and decelerate at different rates. Sort of like the difference between long and short rods in otherwise similar engines.

· Sep 24

The connecting rod photo gives me a headache, so I would like someone to explain it to me like I'm a tractor mechanic.

· Sep 24

What I can’t get my head around is how it was timed to fire the three cylinders on each crank throw. The left and right banks were each 60 degrees from the center. I don’t know as it would be possible to fire them one after the other on each throw without them counteracting the same sequence on another throw.

· Sep 24

Okay, I asked Google. I think I understand it now. It does fire the three cylinders on each throw one after the other before moving on to an opposing throw and repeating that process. So it really is like a 4-cylinder in that respect.

· Sep 24

So a 4 banger with 3 combustion chambers for each ban g? Has anyone else ever tried this?

· Sep 24

Apparently W engines of various configurations were used in aviation. VW has done 8,12,and 16 but I don’t know if they’re using the same crankshaft style.

· Sep 25

@rjones It's a master rod system with a slave rod on either side. The same system is used in aircraft radial engines. One crank throw for up to 9 cylinders.

· Sep 25

Awesome gif Shawn. It is basically 3/5 of a radial.

(edited)

· Sep 24

The crazy part is they were not doing this on the salt flats or even a wide flat beach but on a 4 lane divided highway with bridges spans.

· Sep 24

Everybody should try to get to speed week at Bonneville once in their lives. The idea of doing speed week on a 4 lane highway is insane.

· Sep 24

You would be in luck. It is this weekend.

https://scta-bni.org/bonneville-general-info

· Sep 24

Damilar Benz built a number of speed cars in the 1930s. Almost all are lost. The T80 was crazy one. Here is the summary: The Mercedes-Benz T80 was an experimental, six-wheeled land speed record vehicle designed by Ferdinand Porsche in 1939 with a projected top speed of 750 km/h. Although fully completed, the outbreak of World War II canceled its planned 1940 record attempt, and the vehicle never ran under its own power.

· Sep 24

Mercedes benz was famous for using ice to cool their record cars. You didn't get to run the engine for every long.

· 1w