Recommended Reading – Racing the Silver Arrows: Mercedes-Benz versus Auto Union, 1934-1939

Long considered two of the greatest racing cars and teams of all time, this is without question the greatest book about Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union’s Silver Arrows teams. Between the 350 pages of Chris Nixon’s hardcover masterpiece lies the most authoritative book on the subject of the competition between these incredible machines.

Make no doubt about it, this is a book about racing first and foremost. While there’s plenty of information about the cars themselves, it doesn’t go very much in-depth to be considered a profile on the mechanical makeup of these fascinating racing cars. But if you want to know all the details about all the individual races these cars competed in, the drivers and the strategy used to win, this has it all.

Each of the many chapters is broken up into individual mini-chapters, all of which pertain to the same focus. For instance, the chapter 1934 – Let Battle Commence – the primary story is that of the European and North African circuits and the record-breaking locations, with supporting stories on all the major drivers that took part in those events, such as Hans Stuck, Luigi Fagioli and others. This is followed by a piece on the French Grand Prix and The Year in Pictures, which chronicles in numerous black and white photographs the cars, the races, the people (this done for each year). The chapter concludes with profiles on four circuits: Montlhery, Montenero, Lasarte and Brno. These track profiles detail the events from that year’s Grand Prix with an in-depth review of the competition between Auto Union and Mercedes, how the drivers raced, the problems that occurred and other pertinent competitive details between the two marques. Simply amazing.

Other chapters and side stories are: Caracciola’s Renaissance, The Year of the Titans, The New Formula and The End of a Golden Age. In-depth reviews of the German, Monaco and British Grand Prixs are discussed with incredible details, while other track profiles include Avus, Tunis, Monaco, Budapest, Tripoli, the Nürburgring, Donington, Monza and even Roosevelt Raceway in New York. The information included between these two dominate racing teams during the 1934-1939 seasons is truly spellbinding.

Originally published in 1986, and reprinted late 1987, to obtain a copy of this enthralling book, for used copies expect to pay between $70 and $100 on average, while new copies will set you back a minimum of $275, up to around $350 at most. Whatever you decide to pay, trust me, it will be worth every single cent as it’s a journey into what is arguably considered the greatest era of competition, an era which you certainly don’t want to miss out on.