The rationalized rational F1 car would be the most expensive car ever if a Mercedes 300 SLR Hadn did not sell $ 143 in 2022
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by Chris Chilton
February 3, 2025 at 12:31
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- A vintage Mercedes Grand Prix racing car sold $ 54 million auction last weekend.
- The rare unique closed roller roller was trained by Fangio and Stirling Moss.
- Mercedes donated the car to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 1965.
A $ 2.72 million sticker price puts the Mercedes-AMG One hypercar out of the reach, except the richest car fans, but a Mercedes collector could have had 20 for the money he paid for a classic benz runner last weekend.
During a special auction of RM Sotheby held on Saturday at Mercedes Benz Museum, an incredibly rare Stromlinianwagen W66 R sold for 51.2 million euros, which is equivalent to $ 53.9 million. The price of the hammer makes it the car of the most expensive Grand Prix ever sold, and the most expensive car of all the other related Mercedes, a Uhlenhaut coupe from 1955 300 SLR, which changed hands for $ 143 million in 2022 .
Related: $ 143 million Mercedes 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupé’ becomes the most precious car that breaks Ferrari Record
The W 196 R, which, in Stromliniienwagen or “Rationalized”, looks more like a sports cars endurance runner than a Grand Prix due to its closed wheeled body, has been developed to reach a new limit of Displacement of 2.5 liters introduced for 1954. Legendary producers like Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio turned the steering wheel in turn, Fangio out of three victories, although the open wheel version of the W 196 R was even more successful.
A decade later, the car was offered by Daimler-Benz at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum, which chose this year to sell the car to help develop its current collection of more than 55,000 racing artefacts and more than 150 cars.
“The Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum was honored to take care and share the W 196 R within our museum, but the sum it has obtained today is a transformative contribution to increase our endowment and our sustainability to Long -term as well as the restoration and expansion of our collection, “said Joe Hale, president, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
For years, classic Ferraris like the 250 GTO were the most expensive cars on the collector scene, but now the GTO (of which an unusual example would have been sold for $ 51.7 million in 2023) was relegated to the third. Can you imagine an era when special versions of classics of the new era like the McLaren F1 eclipses all these cars?
