Uhlenhaut’s Drive

Rudolf Uhlenhaut was born in London, during his father’s term as head of the London branch of the Deutsche Bank in July 1906. He trained as an engineer and became an excutive for Mercedes-Benz. He had a long association with the Mercedes-Benz racing program in both the ’30s and the ’50s, and is perhaps best known for his road-legal version of the 1955 Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix car—the 300 SLR Coupe.

Rumor has it that while driving this car one day, and being late for a meeting, he covered the 137 miles from Munich to Stuttgart in just over one hour!

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