MB Trivia: Fastest Pre-War Race

Can you name the fastest race run before World War II?

That would be the AVUS Grand Prix of 1937.

Sitting in the south-western district of Berlin, the AVUS circuit consisted of two long straights and two hairpin turns. The racing there was always considered fast, the average speed of the race winner in 1935, Mercedes Benz driver, Luis Fagioli, was 124mph. Race organizers wanted to make the event faster, so in 1936 no automobiles raced at AVUS while they built a new section. When the 1937 race season was upon Europe, the north curve of the track had a wall of bricks in place to create a banking of 43 degrees. With no safety catch area and literally breakneck speeds, the new section of the course was dubbed, “The Wall of Death.”

Mercedes Benz showed up to the race in 1937 with their streamlined bodied W125 and driver Hermann Lang. The car came equipped with a front suspension of double wishbones and supple coil springs. The rear end was a newer Dion type, which proved to offer much greater stability than the previously implemented swing-axles. Together, the new chassis and a bonkers 5.66 liter, 646 horse power engine took Lang and his Mercedes Benz to a speed of 190mph and a race win.
Awesome old-timey race clips below.