Udo Schütz (born 11 January 1937)^[1] is a German entrepreneur, who was competing successfully with racing cars in the 1960s, and with yachts in the 1990s.

His career began in the early 1960s. With Anton Fischhaber and his #72Porsche 904 he in 1965 won the GT 2.0 class^[2] at the1000 km Nürburgring, finishing 11th overall, and soon was hired by the factory to representPorsche in motorsport.

The1967 World Sportscar Championship season began with two DNF in the US, followed by an 8th at Monza, and he did not even start at Spa with hisPorsche 906 being entered by a Portuguese team while other factory drivers already had the improvedPorsche 910. Rather heavy and tall,^[3][4] dubbed the „Bull from Selters“ (his home town), Schütz was not well suited for the low race cars, especially when fitted with closed tops. For other tall drivers likeDan Gurney andMike Parkes, special bubble roof extensions were added to Ford and Ferrari cars. Driving around Sicily for the 1967 Targa in regular traffic, with the street-legal 910 #184^[5] and without a helmet, Schütz' head did not fit behind the wind screen.^[6] Paired with former Targa winnerUmberto Maglioli, Schütz suffered yet another DNF, but two weeks later in Germany, Schütz won the 1000 km Nürburgring outright^[7] in 1967, paired with Joe Buzzetta on the #17Porsche 910. Le Mans was yet another DNF, followed by his second world championship win,^[8] paired withGerhard Mitter in a 910 at Mugello, then a Targa-like road race in Italy with eight laps of 66 km each. In Brands Hatch, he shared a 910 with Jochen Rindt, finishing 11th. Zeltweg was another DNF, in a 906 entered by Scuderia Lufthansa, and the penultimate round in Switzerland, the Hill Climb atOllon-Villars, saw him finishing with a tiny Fiat-Abarth 1000cc at the lower end of the field.

For the1968 World Sportscar Championship season, Schütz joined the ItalianAlfa Romeo Tipo 33 factory team, scoring 5th^[9] place at the24 Hours of Daytona, with the rest of the season being rather disappointing.

Schütz returned to Porsche for the1969 World Sportscar Championship season and was paired there withGerhard Mitter, mostly on aPorsche 908/02, fitted with spyder or long tail body. The season began at Daytona with a 24th place following camshaft trouble, and a 5th place at Sebring. In the third round at Brands Hatch they scored their first podium finish, beaten by two sister cars. The first Italian race, the1000km Monza, ended with an engine failure, but the second one, in Sicily, with a triumph. They won theTarga Florio^[10] on thePorsche 908/2 #266^[11] ahead of three sister cars. For the 19691000km Spa, a fast track like Monza and Le Mans, they opted to drive the powerful newPorsche 917 for the first time ever in a race, even though they had qualified it only at 8th, slower than their 908. The flat-12-cylinder engine failed in lap 1 before Schütz could take over from Mitter. At the Ring, Mitter/Schütz qualified 3rd in their 908/02,^[12] but due to suspension problems ended up 31st while the other 908s occupied the first five places. At the1969 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mitter and Schütz were back in the 908. After 14 hours, in lap 199, Schütz at high speed crashed his #23 Langheck badly after a collision with the #64 sister car driven byGérard Larrousse, getting ejected from the car when it rolled, surviving without severe injuries. Having already secured the championship, thePorsche System Engineering factory team did not participate in the penultimate round at Watkins Glen in mid July. Only three 908/02 cars were shipped overseas and entered by other teams, and Schütz was not among the drivers.

After his driving partner Gerhard Mitter died two weeks later in practice for the1969 German Grand Prix, Schütz skipped the ultimate round in Zeltweg and retired, sticking to his decision even when Ferrari looked for experienced drivers for theirFerrari 512S multi-car effort in 1970. In total he won 50 races, three of them counting towards the world championship. He has won the German Sports car championship in 1966, scored 2nd with and for Porsche in the1967 World Sportscar Championship season, finished 3rd with Alfa in 1968, and helped Porsche to finally secure the World Sportscar Championship in 1969.

He focused on his companySchütz Werke in his home town ofSelters (Westerwald), which offers also containers. Thus, „Container“ was the name of his yacht with which he in 1993, together withPinta andRubin XII, won theAdmiral's Cup for Germany.^[13] In 2008, Schütz had a new „Container“ built, with modern materials.^[14][15]

• Official website
• Der Stier von Selters:article in Swiss magazine^{[dead link]}Motorsport aktuell 37/2000(in German)
• Solitude Revival 2008, with photos of Udo Schütz
• Porsche 908 races with U. Schütz
• U. Schütz next toFerry Porsche, with Gerhard Mitter and Rico Steinemann
• Photo