The Retro-Chic Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow Concept Is Packed With 738 Electric Horses

We’ve never seen anything quite like this.

Mercedes-Benz has produced a concept car tribute to the company’s famed W 125 Grand Prix racer of 1937 for its contribution to Monterey Car Week festivities.

The EQ Silver Arrow carbon fiber bodywork is adorned in multiple layers of Mercedes’ Alubeam Silver paint to create the appearance of liquid metal on the concept car’s surface. 

There is some irony in painting the EQ Silver Arrow’s lightweight black carbon fiber silver, because the W 125 that serves as its inspiration was stripped of its white paint to save weight, revealing its shining aluminum body panels and sparking the legend of the Mercedes silver arrows racers.

“Over 80 years ago, the historic Silver Arrows demonstrated that Mercedes-Benz was a pioneer when it came to speed, thanks, among other things, to their streamlined shape,” says Gorden Wagener, Chief Design Officer at Daimler AG. “The EQ Silver Arrow show car draws on that legacy. Intended for acceleration and driving pleasure, it embodies progressive luxury and provides an insight into the future of our design.”

The concept’s cockpit is trimmed with Saddle Brown genuine leather, brushed aluminum and solid walnut grounding this high-tech machine in authentic materials even as it employs a futuristic digital cockpit with a curved panoramic projection display screen and a touchscreen that is integrated into the steering wheel.

Of course, the EQ Silver Arrow boasts streamlined art deco style in the manner of the W 125, which let the car’s V12 push it to a German public road record speed of 268.9 mph. That record stood until 2017.

The 738-horsepower EQ Silver Arrow, on the other hand, uses electric power rather than combustion to produce speed. The car’s 80 kilowatt-hour battery pack provides enough energy to drive about 250 miles.

The combustion engine may be gone from the EQ Silver Arrow, but the car has technology to help provide the sound of one. The driver can use the touchscreen on the steering wheel to select the artificial sound of a current Formula 1 Silver Arrow or a Mercedes-AMG V8 engine.

So maybe not everything in this concept is authentic. But we won’t knock it until we try it.