From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Silver Arrows, or Silberpfeile in German, were and are the names of the 1930s and later race cars of Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union.
While German race cars used to be white (like Italins ones red, English green, French blue), the white paint had to be scrubbed off a Mercedes in 1934 in order to fit into the new 750kg weight limit.
The car won the race, and a new tradition was born, at least for Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union.
Audi, formerly part of the latter, won the 24h of Le Mans sport car race in 2000, 2001 and 2002 with silver cars. Mercedes enters in DTM and Formula 1 (togehter with McLaren) in silver livery.
Other German companies, like Porsche and BMW, still favour mainly the traditional white.
