Thursday 24th July 2014

Mercedes W125 360 vid: Time For Tea?

How scared was Roland Asch in the W125 at Goodwood? See for yourself in 360 degrees

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The Mercedes W125 is one of the most fearsome racing cars ever built and the point where engine technology and lightweight construction were way, way ahead of tyre and chassis know-how. Which is how you end up with a near-600hp 5.6-litre, supercharged eight-cylinder in-line engine in something weighing just 750kg. In the hands of the chaps that raced them for real - men like Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Hermann Lang - they were doing 190mph-odd through the Masta Kink at Spa so you've got to feel for Roland Asch when he was chucked the keys to one and told to demo it at Goodwood.

Watching it you could see that every nervy application of throttle resulted in black lines being laid down on Lord March's drive, the noise enough to terrify you into backing out even if the sliding around didn't already.

Want a sense of what Roland was going through without the responsibility of driving a priceless piece of history in front of a huge crowd? This amazing 360-degree video gives you just that, without the nagging fear of what might happen in a coming together of fragile magnesium, a large tank of fuel and tinder dry straw bales. And if old racers aren't your thing Mercedes shot similar views from a selection of the cars it sent up the hill.

See the links below. Or, if you've got an iPad, search in the Apple App Store for Goodwood and you'll be able to download the necessaries to enjoy the 360-degree view by moving your tablet around in the air. Just don't do it on the train home while making vroom vroom noises. People might think you're a bit odd.

See here
Want more? Other 360-degree vids from the following via the links...
Mercedes Petronas Formula 1 car
Sauber-Mercedes C 9:
SLS AMG Black Series:
The Goodwood Sculpture:

 

[virgilio]

well, probably not so scared, given he was being quite prudent... Imagining Caracciola driving it in anger, though, puts current racing drivers to shame!

[Veeayt]

That inline eight sounds marvellous. Pity we don't have those nowadays.

[ST150HB]

What a cool app!

[Wadeski]

I thought i was going to see him spin it....

[Blackpuddin]

You can create your own spin, just tap and drag!

[micksims]

These types of videos are going to be the future and bloody cool. Once the Occulus Rift gets onto the market the creation of these videos ramps up you'll be looking round in 360 in all sorts of cars and tracks.
Audi had one at the Festival of Speed with a cockpit view inside an R8, never got to have a go myself but I hear it was awesome!

[pSyCoSiS]

What a beautiful machine, with pure and proper mechanicals.

Sounds lovely too.

[thiscocks]

Wonder if they still use the same custom fuel in it?

[sideways man]

Now that is a Real car!
Love these old silver arrows,they have a mechanical noise unlike anything else.
Any In Car videos of these, with a decent soundtrack, my speakers are turned up to 11.

I'm not sure they would run on anything other than the special fuel- maybe a modern sanitized version of it, as the original stuff was very potent.
A quick search reveals it as 40% methyl alcohol, 32% benzene, 24% ethyl alcohol and 4% gasoline light.