When Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the father of the 300 SLR racer, traveled to the Mille Miglia in 1955 to witness the success of Mercedes up close, he also considered equipping the 300 SLR racer for long-distance events with a closed cockpit.

His considerations were realized in the form of a competition coupe with performance that no other road sports car could match. During a test on a closed highway section near Munich, the two-seater reached a speed of 290 km/h. Impressed by its exceptional performance during a 3500 km overland journey, the Swiss Automobil Revue test reporter said:

“We’re driving a car that takes barely a second to overtake all others and 200 km/h on a quiet highway is hardly more than walking speed. With its insane handling in tight corners, the car seems to defy the laws of centrifugal force…”

The 300 SLR racer was based on the famous W196 Formula 1 championship car of the 1954/55 season. The SLR abbreviation stands for Sport Light Racing. As one of the most beautiful racing cars of all time, the new SLR was equipped with a slightly different inline eight-cylinder engine, which was increased to 3 liters. Two of the nine 300 SLR rolling chassis, 0007/55 and 0008/55, were converted into 300 SLR coupes with a closed body and gullwing doors. They were intended for use in the upcoming Carrera Panamericana.

The SLR coupe’s body was clad in Elektron sheet metal, a magnesium alloy that is even lighter than aluminum. The semi-circular windshield offered very little air resistance. Like the SLR racer, the coupe driver had to operate the pedals wide-legged behind the steering wheel. Under the hood was a longitudinally mounted eight-cylinder engine, which was placed directly behind the front axle and developed a maximum torque of 234 Nm at 5950 rpm and a maximum power of 310 PS at 7400 rpm.

Due to safety concerns after the tragic accident in Le Mans in June, Mercedes-Benz decided to withdraw from motorsports at the end of the 1955 season. As a result, the SLR coupe project was put on hold and never went into production. Afterwards, Rudolph Uhlenhaut took over one of the SLR coupes as a company car.

With a weight of only 1,117 kg and a speed of 290 km/h, the Uhlenhaut coupe was the fastest road car in the world at that time.

Although no real racing was done with the 300 SLR coupes, the chassis 0007/55 was not unknown in motorsports. It served as a factory test car for the Swedish Grand Prix in June 1955 and the RAC Tourist Trophy in September. At the Targa Florio, the final race for the 1955 sports car championship, a total of 16,695 kilometers were rigorously tested in order to familiarize themselves with the 72-kilometer circuit and its 900 curves. The Mercedes team was no exception – Stirling Moss relentlessly trained at the wheel of chassis 0007/55. He damaged the car on the right front; the frame was bent at this point and the cross-members were bent. But that didn’t stop him and Fangio…

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Understanding Scale

The scale of a model is its size as a proportion to the real-life item. For instance, a 1:18 scale model means that every 1 unit of measurement on the model equals 18 units on the real item. If you divide the real item's size by 18, you'd get the size of the 1:18 model. Please note that models can vary slightly in size, as not all real-life items, like cars or planes, have the same dimensions.

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Civilian Aircraft:

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• 1:100 scale: ~28 cm or 11 inches
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• 1:200 scale: ~14 cm or 5.5 inches

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