Thursday, July 18, 2013

Hammer Down! Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes-Benz W196 Sells for $29.6 Million

Mercedes-Benz W196 Grand-Prix race car

Auctioneer Robert Brooks rapped the hammer at the Bonhams Goodwood sale, sending a Mercedes-Benz W196 grand-prix race car (detailed here) to a new owner and setting a new automotive record for most expensive car ever auctioned. Just how much will it cost its new owner when it’s all said and done? $29,650,095. What you get for that sort of money is W196 chassis number 00006/54, the 2.5-liter straight-eight open-wheel Formula 1 car driven by Juan Manuel Fangio to win the 1954 German and Swiss Grands Prix.

If you had taken our advice, you’d have won the lottery and bought yourself this W196. Even for those who use hundreds as kindling, we wonder what level of wealth is required to keep these wonderfully complex machines running. Mercedes likely would be happy to oversee the upkeep, but the lucky owner surely must be thinking, “How much is this going to cost me?” If it was up to us, we’d put the W196 on display in its beautifully unrestored condition, just as last raced.



Fangio’s W196 may have set the world’s record price, but it’s still a few shekels short of the outright sticker-price title. A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO built for Sir Stirling Moss changed hands in a private sale last summer for a rumored $35 million. The $29 million and change, however, does smash the previous auction record set at $16.4 million when a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa rolled onto the auction block.

Mercedes-Benz W196 Grand-Prix race car - Photo Gallery

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/1-6hpq5gtSc/

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