VIN: the works Mercedes-Benz W196S 300 SLR chassis 0003/55
History of chassis 0003/55
After chassis 0004 (which won the 1955 Mille Miglia, Dundrod Tourist Trophy and Targa Florio), chassis 0003 was the most successful of Mercedes’ all-conquering SLR racing cars.
It first appeared at round three of the ‘55 World Sportscar Championship, the Mille Miglia, which took place over April 30th and May 1st.
The Mille Miglia was the debut event for the SLR. 0003 was allocated to Mercedes’ team leader, Juan Manuel Fangio, who would drive the event single-handedly.
Although Fangio’s car suffered from intermittent fuel-injection problems on the 1000-mile loop from Brescia down to Rome and back again, the Argentine ace managed to finish second behind team-mate Stirling Moss who, together with his navigator, Denis Jenkinson, broke all existing records en route to a famous win.
Four weeks later, Fangio drove chassis 0003 to victory at the annual Nurburgring Eifelrennen which, at the time, was Germany’s biggest sports car race. The SLRs streaked away at the start and proved uncatchable.
Halfway through the 228km event, the trio of Mercedes were three minutes ahead of the fourth-placed works Ferrari. As per team orders, Moss allowed Fangio to take the lead late on and the Argentine won by a tenth of a second.
After the fateful events of the 1955 Le Mans (where Pierre Levegh’s SLR crashed into the crowd and killed 83 spectators), Mercedes returned to action at the non-championship Swedish Grand Prix. The 32 lap event took place on August 7th at the new four mile Rabelov circuit in Kristianstad.
Starting from second (behind Moss), Fangio moved chassis 0003 into the lead on lap two. The rest of the race was a demonstration of Mercedes’ dominance with Moss invariably a yard or so behind Fangio in his customary role as shadow to the F1 world champion.
Chassis 0003 returned to World Championship duty on September 18th when Wolfgang von Trips and Andre Simon (later joined by Karl Kling) were entered to race at the Dundrod Tourist Trophy (round five).
After 84 laps of the gruelling 12km road course on the outskirts of Belfast, Mercedes’ trio of cars swept to a dominant one-two-three finish. Chassis 0003 claimed the final podium position. The result meant the ‘55 championship would be decided at the final race: the Targa Florio on October 16th.
Juan Manuel Fangio was back behind the wheel of 0003 for the Sicilian event. He was co-driven at the 936km contest by Karl Kling.
At mid-distance, Fangio was third behind leader Moss and second pace Eugenio Castellotti in a works Ferrari. The Ferrari was a comfortable two minutes ahead of Fangio which would garner the Italian team enough points to secure the title. However, in a dreadful tactical error, Ferrari were later forced to bring Castellotti into the pits as he had already covered the maximum six laps permitted to any one driver.
This promoted the Fangio / Kling SLR to second and handed Mercedes the championship by 24 points to Ferrari’s 22.
Chassis 003 was subsequently retired from active duty. It has been retained by Mercedes ever since.
Notable History
Daimler-Benz AG
01/05/1955 WSC Mille Miglia (J.M. Fangio) 2nd oa, 2nd S2.0+ class (#658)
29/05/1955 GSC Nurburgring Eifelrennen (J.M. Fangio) 1st oa, 1st S1.5+ class (#1)
07/08/1955 IND Swedish GP, Kristianstad (J.M. Fangio) 1st oa (#1)
18/09/1955 WSC Dundrod Tourist Trophy (W. von Trips / A. Simon / K. Kling) 3rd oa, 3rd S3.0 class (#11)
16/10/1955 WSC Targa Florio (J.M. Fangio / K. Kling) 2nd oa, 2nd S2.0+ class (#112)
Retained by Daimler-Benz
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Mercedes-Benz - https://www.mercedes-benz.com
