White Elephant And Coupe Classics On Idyllic Roads

At the 20th Silvretta Classic Rally Montafon Mercedes-Benz Classic is highlighting two powerful perspectives of the tradition of sportiness in the history of the brand: a Mercedes-Benz dating back to 1928 plus four coupés from the upper-medium-size category are entering the rally.

Mercedes-Benz SSK models on the Silvretta high alpine road: the meeting of two masterpieces of the engineering artistry of their day at the 20th Silvretta Classic Rally Montafon. The Mercedes-Benz SSK built in 1928 represents the family of Kompressor sports cars S, SS and SSK. At the end of the 1920s and beginning of the 1930s they enjoyed considerable success in races and as exclusive sporty private vehicles. The victorious cars were nicknamed the “White Elephants” by their fans. For these power packs painted in Germany´s racing colour of white are strong, powerful – and the awesome roaring of their belt-driven supercharger, which manually compresses the charge air is reminiscent of the pachyderm´s trumpeting.

The model designation of the SSK from model series W 06 stands for “Super-Sport-Kurz” (“super sport short”). With its manually charged 7.1-litre six cylinder inline engine the car has an output of 125 kW (170 hp), and with its belt-driven supercharger switched on 165 kW (225 hp). The top speed is 192 km/h. This high-performance sports car is – like the other models in its family – among the most successful racing cars of its era: at the premiere of the model S Rudolf Caracciola won the inaugural race on the Nürburgring on 19 June 1927. This was following by numerous further victories, including those in high-calibre mountain races such as the International Klausenpass Race in Switzerland.