So, Uhlenhaut pounded around the Nürburgring (and other
circuits) with a handful of mechanics to help him.
Better and more successful Mercedes GP cars resulted,
including the W125 and W154, which dominated the 1937 and
1938-9 seasons respectively. After the War (during which his
English ancestry meant the Gestapo viewed him with suspicion),
Uhlenhaut returned to Mercedes-Benz and designed the world
championship-winning W196 GP racer (which powered Fangio
to the driver’s title in 1954 and 1955) and the iconic 300 SLR
sports racer, as famously used by Moss to win the 1955 Mille
Miglia. He continued to do much of the development testing
himself and attributed his early deafness to driving very loud cars.
Uhlenhaut was the greatest GP engineer of his time and the
W154, perhaps, his masterpiece. There was no world
championship before 1950, yet in 1938 it won every major Grand
Prix apart from the Italian and Donington (effectively, the
British) races — both won by Nuvolari in an Auto Union. It was
beaten only twice in 1939, in France and Yugoslavia (again, to
Auto Unions). Its last GP was that Yugoslav race, run in a park
in Belgrade on 3 September 1939. It was the same day that
Britain declared war on Germany and two days after Hitler’s
tanks crossed the Polish border.
It was the end of Hitler’s Silver Arrows. It was also the end of
a five-year period of unmatched grandeur and drama in Grand
Prix racing, of astonishing technical progress, of elegantly
beautiful 320-km/h pre-War monsters, and of unparalleled
political posturing and interference. Having successfully
dominated GP racing, Hitler would turn his attention to
dominating the world.
Glycol coolant
allowed
temperatures up
to 125° Celsius
A saddle fuel
tank ran over the
driver’s legs to
balance weightULENHAUT DID DEVELOPMENT
TESTING HIMSELF AND
ATTRIBUTED EARLY DEAFNESS TO
VERY LOUD CARS
‘IT’SALLABOUTBALANCE’
Wh r theW1541952: 300 SL
All supercars need ludicrous
doors and for that we can thank
the original 300 SL, which marked
Mercedes’ return to competition
after the War. Its super-light
tubular frame couldn’t support
proper doors, hence flimsy roof-
mounted hatches. Its eventual
road-car spin-off kept the
gullwings, turning entry and
egress into a crowd-pleasing
kerbside performance.
—MarkWalton1969: 300 g”
The RedPigmarksthebeginning
of AMG.WhenMerccrammedthe
600 limo’s V8 into the W109 S-
Class, it created the 300 SEL 6.3,
the world’s fastest four-door.
Even more startling was AMG
racing one at the 1971 Spa 24
Hours, where it came second. The
Red Pig was so fast, so heavy,
that Matra bought it to test plane
tyres. Fate unknown, the example
AMG shows is a replica.
— Ben Barry1954:BlueWonder
Merc’s 1950s racers weren’t just
fastest on track — they were
fastest there and back, too. The
Blue Wonder transporter featured
a 240-PS straight six from the 300
SL and a low, forward-control cab
that helped it reach 169 km/h. It
was scrapped when Merc quit
racing after the ’55 Le Mans
disaster. Decades later, Mercedes
spent seven yearsand6,000 man
hoursbuildinga replica.
—ChrisChilton2006:C-ClassDTM
I hada one-lappassengerridein
theC-Class DTM at Brands Hatch.
This was the Indy circuit, so my
lap was less than a minute. And it
was a C-Class in name only —
under that bloated skin was a
4.0-litre V8 making 476 PS, driving
the rear wheels through a six-
speed — bang! — sequential
transmission, weighing less than
1,000 kg, with super-wide tyres for
unearthly grip. I so nearly puked.
— Colin Overlanddi”
ver the W154C
98 CAR INDIA May 2019 http://www.carindia.in
Feature 125 Years of Mercedes Motor Sport