The Mercedes-Benz Silver Lightning, also called the Silver Arrow, is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

built for the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge, where it won the best animation award for their short film ''Silver Lightning''. It was conceived by the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio in

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, who also previously created the Mercedes-Benz Biome.

Design

The Silver Lightning drew heavy inspiration from the 1930s Silver Arrow race cars, most notably the Mercedes-Benz W125 driven by

Rudolf Caracciola Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola (30 January 1901 – 28 September 1959) was a German racing driver.Bolsinger and Becker (2002), p. 63 He won the European Championship (auto racing), European Drivers' Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the m ...

that won the 1937 Grand Prix, as well as the famous 1955

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Rudolf Uhlenhaut Rudolf Uhlenhaut (15 July 1906 – 8 May 1989) was a British-German engineer, driving engineer for Mercedes-Benz, and the father of Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and 300 SLR. He had a long association with the Mercedes-Benz racing programme of the 19 ...

. The design theme was also influenced by some sci-fi movies, such as ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'', '' Tron: Legacy'' and '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones''. Its roof is constructed of several pieces of small, lightweight magnetic squares, and uses ''Mag-Tech'' technology that allows them to either combine to form a

hardtop A hardtop is a rigid form of automobile roof, typically metal, and integral to the vehicle's design, strength, and style. The term typically applies to a pillarless hardtop, a car body style without a B-pillar. The term "pillared hardtop" was ...

, or retracted to convert the car into a roadster. The omni-directional wheels allow the Silver Lightning to be able to steer freely in any direction, and are enclosed in rings integrated within the car's main body. To comply with the competition's theme of designing "Hollywood’s Hottest New Movie Car", it was accompanied by a short film called ''Silver Lightning'', which features two

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called ''Hans05'' and ''Franz02'' attempting and eventually succeeding in the rescue of their prized stolen Silver Lightning from Dr. Crash-Barrier, the main antagonist of the movie.

Video Game Appearances

This concept car appeared in Asphalt 8: Airborne,'' Asphalt Nitro'' and Asphalt Legend Unite

References

External links

''Silver Lightning'' short film
{{Mercedes-Benz Silver Lightning Retro-style automobiles