From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Article from 'The Motor' magazine detailing Mercedes-Benz and Hanomag-Diesel speed record attempts on a German autobahn.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 128\3\ scan0126 | |
| Date | 14th February 1939 | |
| The Motor 60 1104 February 14, 1939. 3-litre Mercedes-Benz does Record for the Mile Raised by Nearly 100 m.p.h.! Used for First Time Image Caption 1: “THAT WAY!” Says Herr Neubauer, Mercedes-Benz racing team manager, to Caracciola. FOR the first time, the recently opened autobahn between Dessau and Bitterfeld, on the Berlin-Munich trunk highway, has been used for record breaking. Nearly nine miles of this road was specially built for record-breaking attempts. The road is of double width, with no division into dual carriageways, and has been accurately measured and marked off for the various short-distance records—the mile and kilometre, five miles and five kilometres. A map of the road, the first published in this country, appears in “On Road and Track” on page 56 of this issue. The record-section was built to replace the stretch of autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt which has hitherto been used for this purpose, and which has now been banned for ultra-high speeds as being unsafe. It was there that just over a year ago Bernd Rosemeyer was killed in a record attempt. On Wednesday of last week there arrived at Dessau three Mercedes-Benz cars, accompanied by the team drivers Caracciola, von Brauchitsch and Lang. There were two 3-litre cars with this year's Grand Prix engines, and a third car with one of the 1937 5½-litre engines. All three machines had super-streamlined bodies of the type perfected in Germany within the past few years for ultra-high speeds, and which were used actually for racing on the very fast banked track on the Avus, Berlin—now disused. p18 On the same day timekeepers set up their apparatus for attacks on the standing-start mile and kilometre, and Caracciola used the 3-litre car in attempts on the records in International Class D (between 2-litres and 3-litres). He made two attempts upon each record, and broke them both twice. Here are his speeds (subject, of course, to the official confirmation of the A.I.A.C.R. in due course):— Standing Start Records Mile, mean, 127.12 m.p.h. (204.57 k.p.h.). Kilo, mean, 108.80 m.p.h. (175.09 k.p.h.). The old records were held by the Italian, Giuseppe Furmanik, set up with a straight-eight supercharged 3-litre Maserati in 1936 on an autostrada near Florence. The records stood at 102.86 m.p.h. (mile) and 93.73 m.p.h. (kilo.). On the same day Haeberle appeared with a 2-litre Hanomag with Diesel engine, which had a super-streamlined saloon body, and set up a record for compression-ignition cars on the standing mile at the surprising speed of 61.03 m.p.h., ranking as the first record by a car of this type over this distance. Compression-ignition records are a class by themselves and are not sub-divided into categories according to engine size, as in the case of normal internal-combustion-engined cars. An article on the possibility of Diesel engines for racing appears on page 62. Conditions remained favourable, so that next day (Thursday of last week) Caracciola was busy again, this time attacking the 3-litre records for the flying mile and flying kilometre held by Furmanik's Maserati since 1936 at 154.44 m.p.h. and 155.13 m.p.h. respectively. The Mercedes broke these records by what is probably the widest margin ever recorded—an increase of nearly 100 m.p.h.! He broke the flying mile record at 248.286 m.p.h.—and this with a 3-litre car. Image Caption 2: DIESEL. The Hanomag-Diesel with which records were also established. Here are the speeds of each run:— CARACCIOLA'S RECORDS—THURSDAY Flying Kilometre Outward run: 246.64 m.p.h. (396.912 k.p.h.) Homeward run: 248.29 m.p.h. (399.556 k.p.h.) Average: 247.46 m.p.h. (398.23 k.p.h.) Flying Mile Outward run: 247.957 m.p.h. (399.028 k.p.h.) Homeward run: 248.630 m.p.h. (400.112 k.p.h.) Average: 248.286 m.p.h. (399.56 k.p.h.) The Mercedes engine is basically the same as that which will be used in Formula Grand Prix events this year, and not radically altered since last year, although much more power is being obtained and the imposing unit has been greatly tidied up. | ||