November 2022 Featured Car

A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé

A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé has become the most expensive car to ever be sold after being auctioned off for €135 million. The car, previously owned by Mercedes-Benz, was sold by RM Sotheby’s to an unknown collector at the Mercedes-Benz Museum on May 5, 2022.

A total of nine W 196 S chassis were built: seven roadsters, and two coupés.

Two of the nine 300 SLR rolling chassis produced (nicknamed the "Uhlenhaut coupé") were converted into 300 SLR/300 SL hybrids. Effectively road legal racers, they had coupé styling, gull-wing doors, and a footprint midway between the two models.

The nickname for the coupe versions of the 300SLR is “Uhlenhaut coupe” for Rudolf Uhlenhaut, head of the Daimler-Benz experimental department. He frequently drove the 300SLR to and on racing circuits. Photo by Mercedes-Benz

Two of the nine W196 chassis built to be set aside for modification into an SLR/SL hybrid. The resulting coupé featured a significantly more sculpted body than the 300 SL fitted over a slightly widened version of the SLR's chassis, with signature 'gull-wing' doors still needed to clear its spaceframe's high sill beams.

With a maximum speed approaching 290 km/h (180 mph), the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé easily earned the reputation of being the era's fastest road car. A story circulates that, running late for a meeting, Uhlenhaut roared up the autobahn from Munich to Stuttgart in just over an hour, a 137 mile/220 km journey that today takes two-and-a-half.

The coupe’s instrument panel was much like that of a 1953 300SL prototype, with a recessed oval at the center of the panel encircling the minor controls. It retained the cockpit position that was common to all versions of the W196-S, with the driver’s legs spread wide on both sides of the clutch housing and a narrow footwell for the passenger. 

In spite of its name and strong resemblance to both the streamlined 1952 W194 Le Mans racer, and the iconic 1954 300SL Gullwing road car it spawned, 1955 300 SLR was not derived from either. Instead, it was based on the wildly successful 2.5-litre straight 8-powered 1954–1955 Mercedes-Benz W196 Formula One champion, with the engine, enlarged to 3.0 litres for the sports car racing circuit and designated "SL-R" for Sport Leicht-Rennen (eng: Sport Light-Racing). All were the work of Daimler-Benz's design chief Rudolf Uhlenhaut.

The 300 SLR was front mid-engined, with its long longitudinally-mounted engine placed just behind the front axle to better balance front/rear weight distribution. A brazed steel tube spaceframe chassis carried ultra-light Elektron magnesium-alloy bodywork (having a relative density of 1.8 kg·dm⁻³, less than a quarter of iron's 7.8 kg·dm⁻³), which contributed substantially to the low vehicle mass of 901 kg (1,986 lb) (roadster), or 1,117 kg (2,463 lb) (coupé).

The SLR had a second seat for a co-driver, mechanic or navigator, depending on the race. As it turned out, it was only needed during the Mille Miglia, after which the 1955 Carrera Panamericana was cancelled due to the Le Mans accident.