Benz Faqs

Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the individual responsible for the 300 SLR racer, or rather his new ‘company car’ which he appeared in for the first time at the Swedish Formula 1 circuit, provided a fascinating side-show to the race itself. Spurred on by Mercedes’ success in 1955, the Stuttgart engineer had spent the time between races mulling over the idea of fitting the open-top 300 SLR racing sports car with an enclosed cockpit for endurance events in the future.

His musings had now reached reality in the shape of an awe-inspiring coupé with the technology of a racing sports car, the gullwing doors of the 300 SL and performance which no other road-going sports car could match. The two-seater recorded a speed of 290 km/h during a test conducted for ‘Automobil Revue’ magazine at four o’clock in the morning on a closed section of motorway outside Munich.

‘We are driving a car which barely takes a second to overtake the rest of the traffic and for which 200 km/h on a quiet motorway is little more than walking pace. With its unflappable handling through corners, it treats the laws of centrifugal force with apparent disdain,’ scribbled the lucky test reporter after a total of 3500 kilometres. His only regret was that this was a sports car ‘which we will never be able to buy and which the average driver would never buy anyway.’ Only two examples of the SLR Coupé were ever built.

For the Coupé’s bodywork, the Mercedes engineers used Elektron, an easily-to-work-with magnesium alloy which is even lighter than aluminium. The driver’s area had much in common with an aircraft cockpit and the semicircular windscreen generated very little wind resistance. As in the 300 SLR racing sports car, the engine in the ‘Uhlenhaut Coupé’ was turned around its longitudinal axis.

Again, the driver had to control the pedals with his legs apart behind the steering wheel.  The massive brake drums on the driven axles were moved further in, in order to minimise the effects of the road on these unsprung masses. For anyone not already in the know, opening the boot lid was something of a mystery, with the in-conspicuous ‘D’ (for Germany) sign serving as the release lever.