For sale: $50m Mercedes, $30m Ferrari race cars

If they meet their estimates in February, the cars will exceed the most expensive vehicle sold at auction to date in 2024.

Two of the world’s most significant classic cars will go on sale in February as part of an auction series benefitting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. The lots are part of a three-part auction series selling 11 autos owned by the museum. They are expected to cull at least $100 million in total sales.

On Feb. 1 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 R Streamliner worth an estimated $50 million will be offered at a private RM Sotheby’s auction. Four days later at the Retromobile auto show in Paris, RM Sotheby’s will gavel a 1965 Ferrari 250 LM that’s valued at an estimated $30 million.

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If they meet their estimates in February, the cars will exceed the most expensive vehicle sold at auction to date in 2024: a 1963 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder that went for $17.8 million including premiums at Mecum Auctions in January. Each would be a far cry from the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé that sold for a world-record $142 million in 2022, though the Streamliner in particular is nearly as significant and its $50 million value is considered a conservative estimate.

“The 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Streamliner is one of the most important cars in racing history,” Marcus Görig, a car specialist for RM Sotheby’s, said in an email. “Cars like this almost never come to market … and when a car of this caliber becomes available, it’s a tremendous moment.”

Both unique cars represent a racing history unparalleled by others in their class, which is key to their high asking price.

Renowned for its sleek body and short-stroke, inline eight-cylinder engine, the silver Mercedes was driven by two of motor racing’s most decorated drivers, Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, who drove it in the 1955 Formula Libre Buenos Aires Grand Prix (a win) and the 1955 Formula One Italian Grand Prix at Monza, respectively. The Mercedes-Benz factory donated it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1965.

The red Ferrari 250 LM was owned by Luigi Chinetti, who used it for his North American Racing Team (NART), which entered privateer Ferraris in assorted endurance and F1 races. In 1965 the NART 250 LM won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a feat not accomplished again by a Ferrari until 2023.  

The W196 will be sold during the standalone event in Stuttgart in partnership with the Mercedes-Benz Museum with bidding limited to live and telephone participants. All the other cars in the auction series, including an extremely rare 1966 Ford GT40 Mk II and Corvette SS Project XP-64, will be open to registered bidders with online, phone and live bidding available in Paris and at a later sale during the ModaMiami car show on March 1 and 2.

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The cars being auctioned were selected because they have no connection to Indy racing, an auction spokesperson says. Their sale is part of an effort to expand the not-for-profit museum housed in a 100,000-square-foot building owned by Penske Entertainment Corp. and is expected to make the museum financially secure for the next decade.

In 2023 the museum launched a $89 million public fundraising campaign for renovations and to create an endowment to support future investments. A private phase of the campaign raised $46 million; the museum is temporarily closed now for the renovations.

RM Sotheby’s has been on a tear around the auction world lately, despite a rocky market as collectors confront the unpredictable interest rates that often determine how much high rollers want to spend. In October it hammered $30 million in sales for crusty old Lamborghinis and Mercedes cars in a Los Angeles junkyard. The total estimate for that auction had been $17 million.

© 2024 Bloomberg

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