You might be able to get some info on how the measure the distance accurately from a land surveyor. I’m not saying have it surveyed, that would be crazy expensive, but those professionals know about measuring technology.
Ralph Nader DID try to go after VW, because of their rear axle design
But VW’s lawyers were good, and they SPANKED him into submission
He essentially took a beating, and crawled away with his tail between his legs
It’s not talked about often, because Nader isn’t exactly going to be bragging about his losses
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I feel fortunate to be alive then because I had both a VW bug and later a 61 Corvair. I never paid much attention to Nader either then or now. I do remember though way back in 1960, a kid in my confirmation class took some kids for a ride in his dad’s new 1960 Corvair. He ended up rolling it and when he talked about it really couldn’t figure out why. No one was hurt though but I always had that accident in the back of my mind even though the kid was kind of a flake.
In fairness, it would have been exceedingly difficult for a Beetle to crash and kill people during a race in which no Beetles were entered. 
Also in fairness, there are plenty of nasty race crashes involving cars that are also sold as street cars. No one thinks the street car is unsafe because the racing version lost it at 120mph.
It would also be foolish to blame the swing axle for that crash, as it was caused when Macklin’s Austin got knocked in front of the Mercedes, which couldn’t stop in time and ran up the back of the Austin like a ramp. When you’re airborne it doesn’t really matter what kind of suspension you have.
I’ll also point out that Nader was going after cars which a great many people were buying and driving as regular, non-hardcore-performance cars, which included the Corvair and the Beetle. Going after the 300SL would have been like going after the Porsche GT3 because that idiot from the Jackass movies died in one. One expects a car like a Porsche to be dangerous when driven hard (and, incidentally, by a drunk). One does not expect an ordinary commuter car to be dangerous when driven normally.
I would also suggest that an FR layout makes the swing axle less dangerous than a RR layout as in the Corvair and Beetle. Those of us who drive cars with engines located behind the cabin know that the tendency to kick the tail is greater, and the difficulty to recover once the tail is out is also greater. It’s called snap-oversteer, and it’s unique to cars with the weight of the engine toward the back. That’s simply a matter of physics. So the Mercedes would be inherently more forgiving than the other two cars from that standpoint.