1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe
Courtesy: RM Sotheby’s
An ultra-rare Mercedes-Benz race automobile offered for $143 million earlier this month, making it the most costly automobile ever offered.
RM Sotheby’s introduced it auctioned off a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe for 135 million euros, or about $143 million. The sale smashed the earlier document for the most costly automobile offered at public sale by greater than $95 million and topped the $70 million document for a automobile offered privately.
The profitable bid was made by British automobile collector, advisor and supplier Simon Kidston on behalf of an unnamed consumer. Kidston lobbied the Mercedes-Benz board for 18 months to contemplate promoting the automobile.
The sale, first reported by Hagerty Insider, came about Could 5 in a secretive and extremely uncommon public sale on the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Solely chosen collectors and Mercedes-Benz prospects had been invited to attend.
The 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe is one in every of solely two created in 1955 and is thought to be one of the crucial prized vehicles in auto historical past. It was constructed by Mercedes’ race division and named after its chief engineer and designer, Rudolf Uhlenhaut.
1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe
Courtesy: RM Sotheby’s
The automobile was based mostly on the corporate’s profitable W 196 R Grand Prix automobile, which received two World Championships with driver Juan Manuel Fangio. The 300 SLR had a bigger, 3.0-liter engine and was capable of attain 180 mph, making it one of many quickest road-legal vehicles on the time.
The Mercedes-Benz firm owned each of the 300 SLR vehicles, and the Could 5 sale took many collectors unexpectedly.
“It is cheap to say that no person ever imagined that this automobile would ever be supplied on the market, so for Mercedes-Benz to ask RM Sotheby’s to conduct the public sale was an absolute honor,” mentioned Peter Wallman, RM Sotheby’s chairman for the U.Ok. and EMEA.
Mercedes-Benz mentioned it’ll donate the proceeds to create a fund for scholarships and academic analysis into the atmosphere and decarbonization.
Previous to the sale, the most costly automobile offered at public sale was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that went for $48.5 million at RM Sotheby’s in 2018. A 1963 Ferrari GTO offered privately in 2018 for $70 million.
