Uhlenhaut_Mercedes

The Uhlenhaut Coupé was regarded
as the world's fastest car in the fifties.

Photos by Hans Arend de Wit

In the fifties the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing has been the most dreamed of automobile for the boys who were after the finest and the fastest car in the world. You still may see them in posh places. The internationally famous American photographer David Douglas Duncan, known by the photos of his friend Pablo Picasso, drove one, a black 300 SL. He published seven books with photos of the painter, and also a remarkable book named Yankee Nomad. In 1955 the Gullwing came into the picture for the public in Holland when Hans Tak, a branch manager of a bank in Amsterdam and inheritor of an Indonesian fortune, drove one in the Tulip Rallye, and won. The public had heard less of the man who was engineering brain behind the desirable and successful legal street racers, Rudolf Uhlenhaut. In 1931 Uhlenhaut started working with Mercedes-Benz as development engineer assumed leadership of the racecar department.
In 1936 Auto Union dominated the Grand Prix season over the aging Mercedes-Benz W25. Although he never raced competitively Uhlenhaut was a talented driver and able to spot the deficiencies of the chassis and the suspension. In the W125 he changed the chassis and the suspension deficiencies and added a lot more power. In 1937 this Silberpfeil dominated the Grand Prix season, and was considered the most powerful Grand Prix car until the turbocharged cars of the early 1980's. In 1938 the rules in racing changed and necessitated a new car, the W154. From this period onward development at Mercedes is written on black pages.

The 300 SL.
In 1952, Uhlenhaut was able to pick up the pre-war thread in the racing field and designed the Mercedes-Benz W194, the '300SL' racecar based on the W186 Type 300, the later Adenauer limousine. He was restricted in his funds and could only use available components. A spaceframe chassis was built to minimize weight and attain maximum strength, and bodied with magnesium-alloy bodywork. Because of the high sill a unique find was needed to enter and get out, for which problem Uhlenhaut envisioned the solution with the hinged, upwards opening doors, so the 300SL Gullwing was created. With the enthusiasm and encouragement from the US Mercedes Benz importer, Max Hoffman, who promised to take 1,000 cars, Mercedes decided to develop a road going model of the Gullwing for sale.

The new car was relatively cheap and underpowered, but achieved surprising successes, winning important sports car races. The rear independent suspension used a low roll centre swing axle system, where a beam attached to each hub was mounted on the opposite side of the chassis. Thus, the beams were aligned slightly differently and crossed over in the centre line. Cornering forces did not jack the car up, as occurs with short swing axles.

The Uhlenhaut Coupé.
Based on the 300 SLR sports cars racer of 1955, Uhlenhaut created a road legal racecar, also with gull wings. Capable of 290 km/h, this Uhlenhaut Coupé was regarded as the world's fastest road car in the 1950's. Only two cars of this model were ever built. It is rumored that, running late for a meeting, Uhlenhaut exploited the unlimited-speed autobahns to make today's two-and-a-half-hour journey from Munich to Stuttgart in just over an hour. He retired in 1972, never possessed a car of his own. He needed hearing aids, possibly due to hearing damage caused by his loud cars.

The 300 SL Panamericana.
For the racing coach of Mercedes Benz, Alfred Neubauer, only one victory was missing, the Carrera Panamericana, a long distance race in Latin America. With four competition cars - the Germans Kling and Lang in coupés, the American John Fitch and a German journalist named Günther Molter in roadsters - together with a team of 35 service people, the crew flew to Latin America in November 1952 to take on the grueling race. Kling would win the race and Lang would finish 2nd.
Karl Kling had a collision with a vulture at 250 km/h, which smashed his windscreen and Hans Klenk with head injuries, a historical accident. In addition to replacing the screen, the mechanics also immediately fitted eight thin vertical metal bars to protect vehicle and driver in the event of a similar collision - still the vehicle's most distinguishing feature.

Three museum pieces.
The three 300 SL's which are well preserved and housed in the Mercedes Benz Museum, are still alive and kicking and sometimes are allowed on the road to ride to a special meeting, like for instance the legendary SL that recently went back to Mexico, to storm again through the pampas. The three museum pieces, for our photo parked in front of a Dutch mansion house, are replicas in the scale of 1:18 built by CMC, a top car builder in the model field that offered the unique possibility to relive the fairy tales we heard so much about.