- He was aware of the controversy of joining a German team.
His reasoning was simple: he was a racing driver and wanted to
win. Mercedes and Auto Union were the best teams and their
Silver Arrows were the fastest.
He did win, most famously at the 1938 German Grand Prix at
the Nürburgring. In front of more than 300,000 home fans,
Seaman’s Mercedes W154 unexpectedly beat the local heroes von
Brauchitsch (whose car caught fire in the pits while in the lead),
Lang, Caracciola, Stuck, Müller, and Hasse. The most famous
photo of Seaman sees him on the podium that day (24 July 1938),
hair slicked back, goggles around his neck, looking proud but
pensive, hand raised in a half-hearted Nazi salute. There is a
massive swastika-adorned laurel wreath around his neck. ‘I wish
it had been a British car,’ he later whispered to a UK reporter.
It was the first win by a British driver in a major Grand Prix
since Sir Henry Segrave won the 1923 French GP in a Sunbeam.
It also presented Korpsführer Hühnlein, the Nazi head of German
motor sport, with a headache. How to inform the Führer that the
German GP had been won by an Englishman? ‘My Führer,’ he
began. ‘The 11th Grand Prix of Germany for racing cars ended
with a decisive German victory.’ Only at the end of the telegram
before the ‘Heil, my Führer’ sign-off was the identity of the
winning driver reluctantly divulged.
That 1938 season was the first for Mercedes’ new W154 racer. A
change of rules that year restricted supercharged engines to 3.0
litres, outlawing the all-conquering but monstrously fast 5.7-litre
supercharged straight-eight 600-PS-plus W125 of 1937. The
W125 was the most powerful GP car until the turbocharged racers
of the 1980s and, with special streamliner bodies, could reach up
to 240 mph (386 km/h) during speed record attempts. In races, it
regularly exceeded 190 mph (305 km/h). Its technology for the
1930s was mind-boggling, its speed astonishing.
The W154 was a further step forward. It had a new 3.0-litre
supercharged V12, producing 476 PS at 7,800 rpm. Highly
advanced, it used quad cams and four valves per cylinder and was
mounted low in the chassis. This helped give the car its exquisite
ground-hugging stance. The propshaft ran alongside, rather than
under, the driver. Its tubular-frame steel chassis was based on the
W125’s but was shorter and lower. It had two fuel tanks owing to
its heavier fuel consumption. It was the first Mercedes-Benz
racing car with a five-speed gearbox. As with the W125, a de
Dion rear axle was used to keep the rear wheels parallel and to
improve handling.
Although less powerful than the old W125, it was still a
seriously fast car. In practice for the same Belgian GP in which
Seaman was killed, teammate Hermann Lang reached 193 mph
(310 km/h) on the long Masta straight.
In essence, the W154 was a beautifully sleek aluminium tube
cladding a massive engine and two big fuel tanks. There are few
body panels: most of the rear section is just one finely crafted
piece. Minimal cut lines improved the aerodynamics and when
multiple panels had to be used, the joints were almost invisible or
sealed over.
The W154 was the brainchild of Rudolf (Rudi) Uhlenhaut,
who became Mercedes’ racing technical director in August 1936.
That had been a bad year for Mercedes-Benz: just a couple of
wins and regular defeats at the hands of the arch-rival Auto
Unions, which had been designed by Ferdinand Porsche. A few
important races had even been won by Italian Alfa Romeos (in
the hands of the mercurial Tazio Nuvolari), an affront to German
technical superiority. Nuvolari would join Auto Union for the
1938 and 1939 seasons.
Uhlenhaut was just 30 when he took over technical
responsibility at Mercedes’ racing team. Born in London, his
mother was English and his father the London head of the
Deutsche Bank. His fluent English helped cement a fine
relationship with Seaman, who initially spoke little German.
Although he didn’t race, Uhlenhaut was an excellent driver and
did much of the development testing himself. ‘Today, racing
drivers seem to have a better grasp of the technical side of things,
but back then they knew very little,’ he said many years later.Keep the middle
one pinned and
193 mph (310
km/h) is on
‘IT’S ALL ABOUT BALANCE’
Why even Aston’s design boss swoons over the W154
‘The Mercedes W154 is such a
beautiful example of form
following function. It was
designed before we really
understood aerodynamics and
the way cars behaved at high
speed and yet it was capable of
over 185 mph (298 km/h), was
incredibly successful racing, very
reliable — and looked amazing
with such sleek bodywork.
‘This car wasn’t “styled”. Its
singular mission was high
performance. Rudolf Uhlenhaut
[Mercedes’ technical director]
wanted the most simple and
pure solution to the design
challenge of making a fast racing
car. He didn’t think of aesthetics
per se — yet it was aesthetically
beautiful.
‘Uhlenhaut really understood
proportion and part of the car’s
beauty is the relationship
between the wheelbase, where
the wheels are placed, andwhere the driver
sits relative to the
chassis. It’s all
about balance. It’s so
clean, so simple.
‘The W154 also influenced
subsequent racing cars, road
cars, and even aeroplanes. Only
later did we see more universally
sculpted forms and shapes on
aeroplanes.
‘Good car design starts with
form, proportion, and sculpture.
On the other hand, many car-
makers today are going through
a period of very busy and fussy
style.
‘I think they try to shout
because they don’t have
confidence in who they are or
what their brand stands for. They
don’t have the self-assurance to
keep their designs simple, as
Uhlenhaut did. That takes guts.
It also takes real design skill.’
—Marek Reichmanhttp://www.carindia.in May 2019 CAR INDIA 97
125 Years of Mercedes Motor Sport Feature