Record for most expensive car sold doubled: report

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While classic Ferraris are probably what comes to mind when you picture the world’s most expensive cars, you’d be wrong to omit Mercedes-Benz from your mental catalog of uber– expensive machinery. In fact, a racing car from the German brand has just been privately traded for a new record sum.

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The automaker itself owned – until perhaps recently – both examples of its 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Coupés Uhlenhaut”, two slender two-doors built on the chassis not of the 300 SL, but of Benz’s W196 Formula 1 car. Now he’s apparently dropping one of those cars for 135 million euros (US$142 million or C$183 million), according to rumors reported by Hagerty.

That’s more than double the US$70 million a Ferrari 250 GTO was said to have sold privately in 2018, setting a record at the time; and nearly triple the US$48 million for another 250 GTOs auctioned in 2018.

Rumors circulating suggest that Mercedes-Benz worked hard to ensure that the rare race car would not just be resold for profit, but rather would remain with a collector who could afford to take care of it, just like the company did it, while showing it. at a handful of public events each year.

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“Potential buyers were reportedly hosted for lunch at the Mercedes-Benz Museum” in early May, Hagerty reports. “The seller, on behalf of Mercedes-Benz, presented [the offer to] about 10 (maybe less) carefully selected car collectors who were not only wealthy enough to bid, but who would meet the strict criteria set by the German automaker.

The 300 SLR coupés were designed for a 1956 motorsport season which Mercedes-Benz withdrew following a horrific accident at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1955. Although there was never a of competition, the brand’s chief test driver, Rudolf Uhlenhaut – who helped design the 300 SLR – ended up taking one of the road-legal racers as his company car, hence the nickname of the cut.

The coupes were an evolution of the open-top 300 SLRs that won the Mille Miglia in 1955. Their 3.0-liter inline-eight cylinders are said to have produced just over 300 horsepower and could propel the coupes to 180 mph (290 km/ h), making them the fastest road cars of their time.