Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, Tourist Trophy 1955 T1

Dundrod, County Antrim, September 1955: the RAC Tourist Trophy, among the last races Mercedes contested before it withdrew from motor sport at the end of the year. Three 300 SLRs started and all three reached the podium, Stirling Moss and John Fitch winning from Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling, with Wolfgang von Trips and André Simon third, on a day overshadowed by three fatal accidents elsewhere in the field. Behind the racing cars the team kept two spares: an open 300 SLR marked T2, and the first Uhlenhaut coupé, chassis 0007/55, with T1 painted on its bonnet. The coupé had already served as the practice car at the Swedish Grand Prix in August, and afterwards it was trucked to Sicily to do the same job before the Targa Florio. It never raced, but on the road nothing of its time was faster.

CMC presents the T1 car as the team's spare: a red T1 across the bonnet, W22-6962 plates front and rear, and a blue cabin with blue tartan seat facings. The gullwing doors rise to blue leather and a wood-rimmed wheel, the bonnet lifts over the inclined straight-eight, and the boot holds the spare wheel. The wire wheels, with knock-off hub nuts, run on Dunlop Racing 6.50-16 tyres lettered at scale. A limited edition of 1,000 pieces, built by CMC at 1:18.