Autosportfoto

Lord March and Sir Stirling Moss drive the Mercedes Benz W196 at Festival of Speed 2014

One of the best looking cars at Festival of Speed this year, the Mercedes Benz W196 Streamliner which, somewhat controversially, joined the Grand Prix grid (the domain, usually, of open-wheeled cars) during 1954 and '55. This rebodied version of the open-wheeled W196 was just part of Mercedes' domination of Grand Prix racing at the time; both versions of the car were consistently front-running, especially with Sir Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio at the wheel. The W196 and it's Streamliner counterpart were responsible for two of Juan Manuel Fangio's five F1 Championship victories, crushing their opposition. Sir Stirling was part of the Mercedes-Benz team alongside Fangio in 1955, so the sight of the great man re-united with the car was truly something to behold. The display was part of celebrations marking 120 years of Mercedes Benz