Mercedes-Benz brings acclaimed sports car back to life

"The 21st-century SLR will bridge past and the future, bringing cutting-edge motorsport technology to the road, just as the inspirational SLR Coupé did in 1955," said Steffen Baumann, Sales and Marketing Director, Mercedes-Benz Car Group, Dubai. "It's an interpretation of stylistic elements lifted from the original 1950s SLR and design details taken from the 2003 Formula 1 Silver Arrows."
Mercedes-Benz can trace its passion for the super sports car back through automotive history as demonstrated with particular élan in the 'Uhlenhaut Coupé'.

In the mid-1950s, Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss and Karl Kling helped make the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR one of the most successful racing sports cars of all time.

With its eight-cylinder, 2982-cc engine developing up to 310 horsepower, this Silver Arrow was capable of a maximum speed in excess of 300 km/h - enough to power it to glory in all the top road races of 1955. The Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Tourist Trophy, Eifelrennen and the Swedish Grand Prix - the 300 SLR won them all.

Rudolf Uhlenhaut (1906-1989), head of both Mercedes-Benz passenger-car testing and racing-car development at the time, proceeded to build a road-going coupé version of this all-conquering racing machine. The 300 SLR Coupé - better known to car enthusiasts as the "Uhlenhaut Coupé" - incorporating the design and technology of the 300 SL Gullwing produced from 1954 into the 300 SLR competition car. It first appeared on the roads in 1955, turning heads wherever it went.

The spirited lines of the body, with its elongated bonnet, were complemented by the striking proportions of the side-mounted exhaust pipes, the air vents and the wire-spoke wheels.

The cockpit, with its curved wraparound windscreen, was elegantly sculptured. Rudolf Uhlenhaut referred to his latest automotive work of art as a "hot-heeled touring car", and the 300 SLR Coupé lived up to its billing.

Weighing only 1117 kilograms yet developing 310 horsepower, the "Uhlenhaut Coupé" accelerated to a maximum speed approaching 290 km/h in testing.

This made the two-seater the fastest car of its time to be registered for use on public roads, as well as 'one of the most exciting cars that Mercedes-Benz has ever built', as motorsport guru Karl Ludvigsen later observed.

However, the lightning-fast SLR Coupé never made it into series production. The Stuttgart-based car maker felt that the mid-1950s was not the right time to bring out a powerful sports tourer of this kind, leaving the road version of the SLR to fall into oblivion. As Mercedes pulled out of motorsport in 1955, the SLR Coupé project was put on ice. Only two prototypes of this masterpiece of power and elegance were ever built and yet this wonderful car had still become a legend in its own right.