Mercedes-Benz W196

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994 featured a tribute to Juan Manuel Fangio with a display of some of the cars that he drove to win his five World Championships, for two of which, in 1954 and 1955, he was a member of the Mercedes-Benz team.

This is one of the Mercedes-Benz W196 cars that he drove in those two seasons and in which I remember seeing him finish in second place to his team-mate Stirling Moss in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

The programme of the event had this to say about Fangio:

'The five times World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio is to be honoured by the British Racing Drivers' Club this weekend. Now aged 83, Fangio is no longer able to travel long distances, so he will be represented by his nephew, the 1992 & 1993 IMSA GTP Champion Juan Manuel Fangio II. On his uncle's behalf, he will receive one of the BRDC's prestigious Gold Stars for lifetime achievement.

This will be presented on Sunday by Lord Hesketh, President of the BRDC, on the grid. Juan Manuel Fangio II will also be seen in action on the track when he takes to the wheel of the Maserati 250F that his uncle used to win the 1957 German Grand Prix and thereby clinch his fifth and final World Championship.

The younger Fangio will lead the demonstration of famous racing cars, together with Stirling Moss who will drive a 1955 Mercedes-Benz W196, the type that both he and Fangio raced so successfully.'

This is Stirling Moss at Luffield corner during the demonstration run.

The car behind the W196 here is, of course, the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR with which Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson won the 1955 Mille Miglia. Fangio finished in second place in that race.

Friday's Ferrari

The Coys International Historic Festival of 1997 at Silverstone featured a tribute to Ferrari and there was an impressive display of cars on show. Today's car is the 1955 Ferrari 555 Super Squalo, serial number FL/9001, an improved version of the 553 Squalo of 1954, but the performance and handling of the car couldn't match that of the Mercedes-Benz W196 and Maserati 250F.

I never saw the Super Squalo in action in 1955. By the time of the British Grand Prix the team had apparently given up on the car and turned up with the old 625 model which was essentially the 1952/53 500 model with an engine enlarged to 2.5 litres.

Juan Manuel Fangio

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting of July 1994 at Silverstone featured a tribute to Juan Manuel Fangio and had a display of some of the cars with which he was associated. The photograph below shows three of the cars which are associated with his World Championship victories.

His first World Championship was won in 1951 in an Alfa Romeo and the car on the left is an Alfa Romeo 158 of 1950. Although he started 1954 driving a Maserati 250F, Mercedes Benz introduced their new car at the French Grand Prix and he won the Championship in that year and 1955 driving the W196 model, an example of which is on the right-hand side of the photograph. The car in the middle is a Maserati 250F which Fangio used in winning the 1957 Championship. He also won in 1956 driving a Lancia-Ferrari and at the time of this tribute there were none left in existence, although since then several of the earlier Lancia D50s and the Lancia-Ferrari have been recreated (or 'faked' as Denis Jenkinson would have said).

Also on display was this 1948 1.5 litre Ferrari 166, serial number 011F, thought to have been raced by Fangio in Argentina.

I was fortunate enough to have seen Fangio drive in the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree and the 1957 British Grand Prix, also at Aintree.