Rudolf Uhlenhaut

Daimler-Benz engineer who became technical director of the racing department in 1936, later headed testing, and devised the tubular frame of the 300 SL (W 194). He was heavily involved in refining and using the closed 300 SLR later known as the Uhlenhaut Coupé.

Rudolf Uhlenhaut was born in London on 15 July 1906 to Max Uhlenhaut, Deutsche Bank's London director, and Hilda Brice, who was English. The outbreak of the First World War took the family from Britain to continental Europe and then Germany. He studied mechanical engineering in Munich before joining Daimler-Benz's testing department in 1931.

By August 1934, Uhlenhaut was head of Driving and Finishing; by the following April he was a test engineer in passenger-car development, responsible for the chassis and suspension of the 170 V. In September 1936 he became technical director of the racing department. His assessment of the W 25's chassis informed the W 125, with which Rudolf Caracciola won the 1937 European Championship.

In the early 1950s, as head of testing, Uhlenhaut proposed combining Mercedes 300 and 300 S components with a tubular frame and an aerodynamically optimised body. The 300 SL (W 194) used the frame he devised. In 1952, Mercedes-Benz finished first and second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and first and second in the Carrera Panamericana with the W 194.

Sindelfingen body designers had drawn a closed 300 SLR as early as November 1953. Two examples were completed in summer 1955 for a proposed Carrera Panamericana entry and the 1956 season, but did not race after Daimler-Benz withdrew from motorsport on 11 October 1955. The first completed car covered more than 10,000 kilometres, mainly with Uhlenhaut driving; enthusiasts began calling it the Uhlenhaut Coupé in the late 1980s.