For the race at Nürburgring this coupé became a roadster and was driven there by Theo Helfrich. These tests were performed on vehicle 0006, which underwent an interesting metamorphosis in the course of its life. Its anchorage points in the tubular space frame could not long withstand the forces acting upon them. Looking and sounding impressive because their use created a dreadful noise, the brake flap was however not used.
Clean return linein 1965 230sl gas tank drivers#
The drivers found that the additional load on the rear axle which counteracted the axle load transfer during heavy braking was actually a pleasant side effect. This force sufficed to push the flap back into its original position. At 120 kph the braking power was still a quarter of that at 240 kph. At a speed of 240 kph this meant a deceleration of 3.4 m/s. Though this made for a poorer cd value of 0.215 in the down position, in the erect position a cd of 0.9 was obtained. STU suggested they should be attached to the rear end of the roof on pylons above the roof line. As they would be lying in the slipstream of the coupé roof, they would not be getting sufficient exposure to the forward air-stream. Experiments with a model in the wind tunnel at Stuttgart Technical University (STU) showed that the position originally planned for the brake flap on two pylons on the boot lid was not optimal. To reduce the load on the brakes, the idea took shape at Mercedes-Benz to use an air brake in the form of a tip-up aluminium flap. In each lap it was necessary to decelerate from top speed to about 50 kph for these bends. Brakes are subject to particular loads and stresses in Le Mans, particularly on the four-kilometre straight between the Tertre Rouge and Mulsanne bends.
Clean return linein 1965 230sl gas tank full#
The preparations for the long-distance race were in full swing. He also discovered that none used a space frame. Ludwig Kraus played observer at the Swiss Grand Prix in early June and discovered there that the Ferrari and Alfa Romeo racing cars had tubular frames of various designs with round or rectangular tubes. The international rules for sports cars were sent to Walter Häcker from the Sindelfingen Design Engineering department and his colleague, Senior Engineer Roller from the head engineering office in Untertürkheim. In July, Prince Wilhelm von Urach and Alfred Neubauer sent their very detailed reports on their visit to CEO Wilhelm Haspel and Chief Engineer Fritz Nallinger. In 1951, the Untertürkheim racing specialists swarmed out to familiarise themselves with the peculiarities of this race. And so the preparations for participating in this classic long-distance race started a year before the race. Only one feather was still missing in their cap: the 24-hour race of Le Mans – this was a race for which the 300 SL (W 194) was predestined. Mercedes-Benz had won almost all the important races at least once during the previous decades. And the cars were all painted different colours, chosen by Chief Engineer and Board of Management member Fritz Nallinger so that they could be more easily distinguished from one another in the race. Two points remain to be noted: Fritz Riess in car 0006 drove the first 300 SL with the large gullwing door.
Kling, Lang and Riess finished in the top three places.
This accident not only meant the race was over for the ex-champion, it also spelled the end of his racing career. The third surprise was when Caracciola was forced to retire after a head-on collision with a tree when his brakes failed. This contest – fought without instructions from the team – made the race very exciting and compensated the spectators for the 1-2-3 Mercedes-Benz procession at the finish. In a tenacious battle for the lead, Kling finally overtook his teammate. What then followed was an exciting chase by Kling to catch up with Lang. Caracciola got off to a lightning start and immediately took the lead, as in the old days, but had to give it up to his old rival Lang on the second lap. The second surprise – and a disappointment for many spectators – was that Daetwyler dropped out right at the start when his car simply rolled to a stop after a few metres with no power whatsoever because of a defective driveshaft.