1955 MERCEDES COULD SHATTER F1 AUCTION RECORD

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A rare piece of Formula One history is set to hit the auction block, with experts predicting it could become the most expensive grand prix car ever sold.

The 1955 Mer­cedes W196 R ‘Stream­lin­er,’ once dri­ven by leg­ends Juan Manuel Fan­gio and Stir­ling Moss, is expect­ed to fetch more than 50 mil­lion euros ($52 mil­lion) at an RM Sotheby’s auc­tion in Stuttgart on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 1, 20250.

If the car meets its tar­get price, it will sur­pass the pre­vi­ous F1 auc­tion record set by anoth­er Fan­gio-dri­ven 1954 Mer­cedes W196, which sold for $29.6 mil­lion at Good­wood in 2013. It would also become the sec­ond most expen­sive car ever auc­tioned, fol­low­ing the 1955 Mer­cedes 300SLR Uhlen­haut Coupe, which was sold for a stag­ger­ing 135 mil­lion euros in May 2022.

A Masterpiece of Engineering and Speed

The W196 R Stream­lin­er, one of only four com­plete exam­ples in exis­tence, was ini­tial­ly built for high-speed cir­cuits. Fan­gio pilot­ed its open-wheel ver­sion to vic­to­ry at the Buenos Aires Grand Prix in 1955, while Moss raced the stream­lined vari­ant at Mon­za, set­ting the fastest lap before retir­ing.

“This is, with­out a doubt, the most beau­ti­ful race car in the world,” said Mar­cus Bre­itschw­erdt, head of Mer­cedes-Benz her­itage. “Noth­ing com­pares. It’s a mas­ter­piece of style and design.”

With a top speed exceed­ing 300 kph (186 mph), the car remains a sym­bol of Mer­cedes’ engi­neer­ing dom­i­nance in the 1950s. The Sil­ver Arrows team ruled the grand prix scene before with­draw­ing from motor­sport in late 1955, fol­low­ing the trag­ic Le Mans dis­as­ter that claimed 84 lives.

A Historic Sale for a New Era

Chas­sis num­ber 0000954 was donat­ed to the Indi­anapo­lis Motor Speed­way (IMS) Muse­um by Mer­cedes in 1965. The muse­um is auc­tion­ing the car to fund its restora­tion projects as it shifts towards a stronger focus on Amer­i­can motor­sport his­to­ry.

The W196 R is one of 11 cars the IMS Muse­um plans to sell across three auc­tions this year. Who­ev­er takes own­er­ship of the Stream­lin­er will acquire not just a car, but a defin­ing piece of motor­sport his­to­ry.