Return of the Silver Arrows
Sauber Mercedes C9
A Silver Arrow which obliterated the opposition during the 1989 World Sportscar Championship, the C9 – built in collaboration with the small Swiss Sauber team – was the car that put Mercedes firmly back on the motorsport map.
Two hundred and forty-eight miles per hour. That’s the extraordinary top speed the Sauber-Mercedes C9 of Mauro Baldi, Kenny Acheson and Gianfranco Brancatelli recorded on Les Hunaudiéres during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1989.
On race day, it was the sister Silver Arrow of Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens which clinched victory in the French endurance classic. There was no doubting it – for the first time since the mid 1950s, before it withdrew from international motorsport following the Le Mans tragedy of 1955, Mercedes-Benz was back on top of the motorsport world.
The 750HP, twin-turbo, V8-powered C9 sports-prototype was no less dominant in the World Sportscar Championship in 1989, of which Le Mans was unusually not a part that year. The Silver Arrows obliterated the opposition, scoring eight of a possible nine wins, losing out only at Dijon-Prenois where the relentless heat proved too much for the car’s Michelin tyres to withstand.
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