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1954 Mercedes W 196 R Streamline the most expensive racing car

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The 1954 Mercedes W 196 R Streamline was sold at an RM Sotheby’s auction held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on February 1, 2025, for a record amount of 51,155,000 euro/$53,917,370.

As we announced on November 26, 2024, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum has decided to sell 11 of its collector cars to restore the museum. Among the models up for auction are the Mercedes W 196 R Streamline, Ferrari 250 LM, and a Ford GT40 MK II from 1960s.

The Mercedes W 196 R Streamline with chassis number 000009/54 was donated by Daimler-Benz AG to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum on August 30, 1965. At the auction organized by RM Sotheby’s auction house RM Sotheby’s, especially for this model, at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Mercedes W 196 R Streamline sold for a record amount of 51,155,000 euro/$53,917,370.

This makes the Mercedes W 196 R Streamline the most expensive racing car ever sold at auction and the second most expensive car in the world after the Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe, which sold for €135 million in 2022. The auction took place in the same museum room as the 2022 auction for the Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe.

During its nearly six-decade ownership of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, the Mercedes W 196 R Streamline W 196 R participated in major events such as the 1996 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, the 2003 Canadian International Auto Show, and the grand re-opening of the redesigned Petersen Automotive Museum in December 2015.
The Mercedes W 196 R was developed to comply with the new “up to 2.5-liter displacement” engine rules enforced in 1954.

The car was repurchased in 2024 from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum by the Mercedes Classic Center in Fellbach but the price of the transaction has not been made public. Mercedes Classic Center’s  division operated a general inspection before selling it at auction. Mercedes and RM Sotheby’s auction house have not disclosed the identity of the buyer but we will probably find out later as with the Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe.



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