Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers’ Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times. He raced for Mercedes-Benz during their original dominating Silver Arrows period, named after the silver colour of the cars. His record of six German Grand Prix wins remains unbeaten.
About Rudolf Caracciola in brief
Otto Wilhelm Rudolf Caracciola was a racing driver from Remagen, Germany. He won the European Drivers’ Championship, the pre-1950 equivalent of the modern Formula One World Championship, an unsurpassed three times. He was affectionately dubbed Caratsch by the German public, and was known by the title of Regenmeister, or ‘Rainmaster’, for his prowess in wet conditions. He raced for Mercedes-Benz during their original dominating Silver Arrows period, named after the silver colour of the cars, and set speed records for the firm. His record of six German Grand Prix wins remains unbeaten. He died in the German city of Kassel, after suffering liver failure. He is remembered as one of the greatest pre-1939 Grand Prix drivers, a perfectionist who excelled in all conditions, and who was a member of the Nazi paramilitary group National Socialist Motor Corps. He returned to racing after the Second World War, but crashed in qualifying for the 1946 Indianapolis 500. He continued to work as a Fafnir representative in Dresden, where he won the 1923 ADAC race at the Berlin Stadium in a borrowed Ego 4go 4hp car. In his autobiography, he said he only ever sold one car for £40, but due to inflation by the time the car was delivered, the money was just enough to pay for the horn and two headlights. In 1923, he was hired by the Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft as a car salesman at their Dresden outlet.
His success in racing continued in four races in 1923, driving a Mercedes 62540 40hp to victory in four of the eight races he entered. In 1934, he won three European Championships, in 1935, 1937 and 1938, with whom he won two Hillclimbing Championships. In 1933, he established the privateer team Scuderia C. C. with his fellow driver Louis Chiron, but a crash in practice for the Monaco Grand Prix left him out of racing for more than a year. After he retired, he worked as a Mercedes- Benz salesman targeting North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops stationed in Europe. He later became an apprentice in the Fafnar automobile factory in Aachen. He enjoyed his first success in motorsport while working for Fafnor, taking his NSU motorcycle to several victories in endurance events. In 1922, he drove a works car to fourth overall in the Automobil-Verkehrs-rs- und Übungs-Straße race at Berlin Stadium. He followed this with victory in a race in the Opelbahn in Rüsselsheimim, and the first in his class and the quickest Faf Nirn in 1923. In April of that year, he continued to race as a soldier in Berlin, winning four races. He moved to Dresden in 1923 where he continued racing, and in April 1923 he won four races at the Berlin Stadium.
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