This Mercedes Silver Arrow image started out like A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’ music video

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Mercedes composite images

The image above might look like a fairly interesting painting of some old Mercedes-Benz grand prix cars getting, but in reality, it showcases far more than just paint on canvas. To celebrate this year's 80th anniversary of its Silver Arrows racecars, Mercedes commissioned some very talented digital artists to craft a series of 12 depictions of important moments in the company's racing history to display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The Silver Arrow legend starts with Mercedes showing up for the 1934 German Grand Prix with its W25, a car that weighed 751 kilograms - a kilo over the 750-kg (1,653-pound) maximum. Team boss Alfred Neubauer told his mechanics to strip the paint of the cars, leaving them in gleaming bare aluminum in order to shed a little weight. Apparently, it worked, because one of the Mercs took victory in the race and the look became part of the company's legacy.

What makes anniversary project's artistic process so intriguing is that each of these celebratory images is a composite of real-world photos of extras in period-correct dress and digital recreations of some of the cars and venues. As this video shows, it all starts with line drawings that remind us a lot of that iconic '80s music video, Take On Me by A-ha. All of these disparate techniques were eventually combined together to create these fascinating, hyper-realistic pictures of the past.

The video below takes you behind the scenes to show just some of the incredible work required to create this unique look. If you want to learn more about how all of this was done, there's no need to go hunting high and low, Mercedes has a website with additional reference images giving a deeper view of the process.

Continue reading This Mercedes Silver Arrow image started out like A-ha's 'Take On Me' music video

This Mercedes Silver Arrow image started out like A-ha's 'Take On Me' music video originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Nov 2014 10:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mercedes’ Silver Arrows legend was born 80 years ago

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The first Silver Arrows race car, the Mercedes W25 at the 1934 Eifel race.

In 1932 the international motorsport oversight body did what many Formula One fans wish the FIA would do today: declared that from 1934 there would be no restriction on Grand Prix racecar design beyond having a maximum weight of 750 kilograms (1,650 pounds). That led Mercedes-Benz to develop the Silberpfeil, the racer that began the Silver Arrows legend, the aluminum-bodied W25. In its first race on June 3, 1934 at the Nürburgring the W25 driven by Manfred von Brauchitsch won the event and set the track record.

The day before the race, however, the W25 was painted white, but when it was put on the scales to satisfy the one condition it had to fulfill it weighed 751 kg. The legend is that the solution devised by team manager Alfred Neubauer: grind off all the paint. The aluminum dart with the supercharged 3.4-liter inline-eight-cylinder stayed at or near the front of grand prix racing for the next five years, then continued the trend after World War II, cementing the Silver Arrows legend into racing history.

You can read all about its history in the press release below and admire the past in the high-res gallery above, then watch its modern incarnation driven by Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg the next time the F1 circus comes to town.

Continue reading Mercedes' Silver Arrows legend was born 80 years ago

Mercedes' Silver Arrows legend was born 80 years ago originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 26 May 2014 10:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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