1955 Mercedes car smashes F1 auction record with £42.7m price tag
A streamlined Mercedes raced by F1 legends has smashed the auction record with an eye-watering price tag.
A Mercedes grand prix car raced by F1 legends Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio has sold at auction for £42.75m (€51.155m).
It has smashed the record for a grand prix car selling at auction. The previous record was another ex-Fangio Mercedes W196 from 1954 which went under the hammer for £19.6m at Goodwood in 2013.
The silver W196 R Stromlinienwagen, one of only four complete examples in existence, was sold by RM Sotheby’s at the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart, Germany, on Saturday.
Five-time world champion Fangio won the 1955 Buenos Aires Grand Prix in the W196 R, while Moss set the fastest lap at an average speed of 134mph in the car at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza the same year. Moss retired after the feat.
It had a price estimate of more than €50m and went under the hammer after a final offer of €46.5m. The final price includes the buyers’ premium from the highest bidder, who was not named.
"It's a beautiful car, it's a very historic car, it's just a little bit outside our scope window," curator Jason Vansickle said.
"We've been fortunate to be stewards of this vehicle for nearly 60 years and it has been a great piece in the museum but with this auction and the proceeds raised, it really will allow us ... to be better in the future."
The record fee ever paid for a car at an auction was a 1955 Mercedes 300 SRL Uhlenhaut Coupé that sold for €135m in May 2022.
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