Trendy kids 'drive' Silver Arrows
2010-09-07 11:54
Picture this: your eight-year-old in an Auto Union car, speeding around a racetrack, wearing the trendiest Italian fashion.
Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?
Besides being the craziest race cars of all time, a driver died behind an Auto Union’s wheel.
And yet the Italian brand Benetton has released its latest fashion line, displayed with a child-sized mannequin placed in a toy version of the 1936 Auto Union Type C V16.
Spotted in Vienna, the irony of selling children's clothes using the Silver Arrow has a bit of a bite to it.
The cars, extremely powerful and forbiddingly dangerous, were known for their difficult handling characteristics, which is hardly surprising considering they were powered 318kW supercharged V16 engines. An Auto Union Type C driver could effortlessly initiate wheelspin at just over 160km/h.
Utterly dominant in top-flight racing, they won 25 Grands Prix between 1935 and 1937.
Legendary German racing driver Bernd Rosemeyer died in one in 1938 while going at 432km/h. It sure puts the achievement that is Bugatti’s Veyron in perspective, doesn’t it?
The Silver Arrows was the collective name given to the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union cars that dominated racing before the Second World War. The whole programme, believe it or not, was pushed by Adolf Hitler, German Chancellor at the time, who called for a “high speed German automotive industry”. The Silver Arrows were developed with a formula that did not restrict the engine size, but limited the car, fuel and oil to 750kg, without the driver, making them the fastest cars in history.
The Benetton family, next to fashion, has also had some car interests, owning their own F1 team from 1986 to 2001, before it was bought by Renault for $120-million. The team saw managers such as Flavio Briatore and David Richards. However 19 of the team’s 27 wins came from Michael Schumacher. Benetton’s last F1 car was the B201, driven by Jenson Button.
So, while the Italian family name may make some connection between children's fashion and racing dangerous cars (perhaps a 1930's icon statement?) Wheels24 wonders about the Benetton’s interesting marketing angle.
Are the kids or parents expected to go for this type of merchandising?
