Mercedes-Benz W196

The Mercedes-Benz W196 was a Formula One racing car that Mercedes-Benz built for the 1954 and 1955 seasons, successor to the W194 300 SL sports car. In the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss it won 9 of the 12 races it entered and took both world championships it competed in. Its firsts included desmodromic valves and mechanical direct fuel injection adapted from the DB 601 aircraft engine. It came in two body forms, an open-wheel car and the closed-wheel streamlined Type Monza, which won three races and remains the only closed-wheel car to win Formula One races. The 3-litre 300 SLR sports racer was derived from it, and Mercedes withdrew from racing after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, which ended the W196.