VIN: the works Mercedes-Benz W194 300 SL chassis 00005/52
History of chassis 00005/52
Mercedes initially built ten examples of the W194 300 SL for the 1952 season, eight of which were raced. An eleventh car was subsequently assembled to serve as a protoype for the W198 Gullwing.
Chassis 00005/52 was raced on three occasions during 1952.
It first appeared alongside two sister cars for what was the W194’s competition debut: the 1952 Mille Miglia. The event took place over May 4th and 5th. 00005/52 was allocated to Rudolf Caracciola and his navigator, Paul Kurrle.
Despite having initially been delayed while stuck behind an Aston Martin DB2, Caracciola / Kurrle eventually finished fourth overall and third in the over two-litre Prototype class. They completed the 978 mile loop from Brescia, down to Rome and back again, in a time of 12 hours 48 minutes and 25 seconds (38 minutes behind the winning Ferrari).
00005/52 was subsequently freshened up back in Stuttgart. Its colour was changed from Silver to Dark Red in anticipation of an outing at the Swiss Formula 1 Grand Prix Support Race for Sports cars at Bremgarten (May 18th).
The four Mercedes in attendance all appeared wearing different colour schemes; in addition to the Dark Red livery of 00005/52 there were Dark Green, Powder Blue and Silver examples on hand.
As had been the case at the Mille Miglia, 00005/52 was allocated to Rudolf Caracciola who qualified third for the 18 lap race behind team-mate Kling and the pole-sitting Ferrari of Swiss Sportscar Champion, Willie Daetwyler.
Once Daetwyler’s Ferrari had retired (after just three laps), Mercedes were able to take a dominant 1-2-3 finish with Kling, Lang and Riess placing first, second and third respectively.
Unfortunately, the race was marred by a career-ending crash that left Rudolf Caracciola severely injured.
On lap 13, Caracciola had lost control and ploughed headlong into a tree at high speed.
Although Caracciola never raced again, 00005/52 was rebuilt and went on to appear at the final event of the year: the 1952 Carrera Panamericana.
The ‘52 Carrera took place from November 19th to the 23rd and was opened up to Sports cars having previously been organised exclusively for series production machinery.
Mercedes took three silver cars for the gruelling 1934-mile event: chassis 0005/52 was on hand for Hermann Lang / Erwin Grupp and appeared with blue flashes painted on the fenders. All three cars were sponsored by Mexican Mercedes-Benz agent, Prat Motors SA, and ran bored out 3.1-litre engines.
Lang / Grupp started circumspectly, but by the middle of day three they had risen to third behind Bracco (Ferrari) and team-mates Kling / Klenk.
Lang / Grupp continued to shadow Kling / Klenk for the rest of the event and were ready to push on in the event the faster Mercedes pairing encountered trouble.
Ultimately though it was Bracco whose car failed which promoted the Mercedes to first and second. Kling / Klenk went on to finish just over 35 minutes ahead of Lang / Grupp. Chinetti / Lucas claimed third sport in their Ferrari 340 Mexico.
Around a year later in late 1953, 00005/52 was shipped out to the Moroccan Mercedes-Benz distributor, Joseph Weckerle, who planned to race the car in the Casablanca 12 Hours which took place on the Ain Diab street circuit on December 12th. An entry was filed, but neither 00005/52 nor Weckerle (who had finished eighth the previous year driving a Nash-Healey) actually attended.
Weckerle sold the W194 back to Mercedes in 1959.
Today the car forms parts of Mercedes’ heritage collection.
Notable History
Daimler-Benz
Registered W59 4999
Silver
04/05/1952 IND Mille Miglia (R. Caracciola / P. Kurrle) 4th oa, 3rd S2.0+ class (#613)
Re-painted Dark Red
18/05/1952 IND Swiss GP Support Race, Bremgarten (R. Caracciola) DNF (#16)
Re-painted Silver with Blue flashes
23/11/1952 IND Carrera Panamericana (H. Lang / E. Grupp) 2nd oa, 2nd S class (#3)
1953 sold to Joseph Weckerle, Casablanca
1959 sold to Mercedes-Benz, Stuttgart
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Mercedes-Benz - https://www.mercedes-benz.com
