The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an important event for vintage racing cars, held in the south of England. Cars are run up a paved hillclimb in either demonstration or timed categories. There is also a fascinating downhill event for gravity-powered cars, but that's another story.

MB was well-represented in last weekend's entry list. The factory museum had a W154, a W196 monoposto, and a W196 streamliner in attendance. It was a great treat to see and hear these three MB Grand Prix cars from the period when the factory could do without McLaren. The sound was gorgeous, especially from the W154. These cars were not kept in the same paddock as the rest of the entries, so please excuse the poor photos.

The W154 from the 1938-39 season was driven at Goodwood by John Surtees. It has a 4-cam, supercharged V12 of 3 litres putting out about 480 HP. The car represented a revolution in racing car design, with a low centre of gravity and performance that was unequalled for probably 20 years after. The blue smoke trailing the car in the second picture is tire smoke off the starting line.





The W196 from 1954/55 gave Fangio two back-to-back world championships, winning 12 of the 15 GPs in which it was entered. This 1954 car has a 2.5 litre straight 8 with fuel injection and desmodronic valves, making about 300 HP at 8700 RPM in its final form. The space-frame chassis in this and the W196R weighs a startlingly low 36 kg. The car is being driven here by Jochen Mass.




A streamlined body was also available for the W196. The original body panels on this car were made of magnesium but were remade in aluminum during resoration. The car here is being driven by Stirling Moss.





The two W196 cars are shown below with three racers from other manufacturers. On the left in the foreground is the nose of a 1957 Maserati 250F (I think). A 1954 Lancia D50A is in the centre foreground. This car was faster than Ferraris of the same period but Lancia was in financial trouble. Ferrari took the cars over, killing them but copying some of their features for the next season. On the right is a Ferrari 500/625 from the 1952-55 seasons.




I could also post pictures of earlier MBs from this event if anyone is interested.

 

Excellent post and pics. I've always wanted to make it across the pond for Goodwood. BTW, do you have any pictures of this year's scupture? I have yet to see any.

 

You mean the sculpture in front of the house? I don't think I have one. It had two rising columns with a generic streamlined racecar (similar to the W196R) and something like a Schneider Trophy plane mounted vertically, both pointing at the ground. The columns curved horizontally over the top of the two, very nice. Total height maybe 10 metres but I'm a poor judge of height. It was my first time at Goodwood and I had not realised there was an annual sculpture.

 

I would love to see some pics of some of the early MB's there!

Awesome pics of those early racers!

 

The oldest car at Goodwood was an 1894 Peugeot, the winner of that year's Paris Rouen reliability trial. Compared with our next cars, the Peugeot was pretty slow. The 1904 Mercedes 28/32 below is from the period before the merger of Mercedes and Benz. Its aluminum 4-cyl, 5.3 litre engine could take it to 75 mph. With no front wheel brakes, stopping from that speed would have taken a long time. Engineered by Wilhelm Maybach, this car is the little brother of the 12-litre monsters entered for the infamous 1903 Paris-Madrid race.






As the 1920s drew to a close, advances had brought performance almost into the modern era. The legendary SSKL was initially designed by Ferdinand Porsche but upgraded significantly after Porsche left MB in 1928. Its 7.1 litre, supercharged 6-cylinder engine produced up to 300 HP and gave a top speed of 156 MPH. This 1929 model still had unassisted, mechanically operated brakes.