A Mercedes streamliner once driven by Formula One greats Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss made history at the weekend when it was sold at auction for a record €51.155 million ($52.52 million), becoming the most expensive grand prix car ever sold.
The sale surpassed the previous record for a grand prix car of $29.6m, paid in 2013 for a 1954 Mercedes W196 R that Fangio also drove.
The streamliner also becomes the second most valuable car ever sold at auction after a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe, purchased for $142 million in 2022.
This particular W196 R, one of four complete models in existence, entered testing in December 1954 and made its race debut at the Buenos Aires Grand Prix a month later with Fangio at the wheel.
As it wasn’t an F1 event, there were no championship points to contend for, but the Argentine, who would become a five-time world champion, nevertheless went on to win by recording the lowest total time over two 30-lap heats.
In September of that year, Moss recorded the fastest lap at the Italian GP when he drove the W196 R at Monza.
Auctioneers RM Sotheby’s sold the car on behalf of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Mercedes donated the car to the museum in 1965.
The auction took place in Stuttgart, Germany, on February 1.
(Top image: RM Sotheby’s)
