Photo RM Sotheby's
RM Sotheby’s brings not one but two icons to market. One is a 1955 Mercedes W 196 Streamliner raced by Stirling Moss. The other is the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Ferrari 250 LM. The current owner wants them out… because they don’t fit in the collection.
Icons is a word that is often misused, including by us. But here, we can safely say that we are indeed talking about two icons. The streamlined Mercedes W 196 Formula 1, used at high-speed circuits in 1954 and 1955, is not just rare, but it is also aesthetically… well, gorgeous. Worth many millions.
And what about the other car. Before Ferrari’s Le Mans win in 2024 (and 2025), this was the last Ferrari to have taken outright victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Chinetti NART entry, driven by Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory, who saw the intense battle between the factory Fords and Ferraris see them all fall by the wayside. And all this history could now become yours?
Well, probably not. RM Sotheby’s will handle the sale this autumn at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Amounts currently flying talk of around $70 million for the Mercedes, and if we are fair, it’s probably the same thing for the Ferrari. You simply cannot put a price on these jewels, since there is very little to compare them to.
Why would anyone part with these. Well, they are both in the collection of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. And it is fair to say that there is something to say for the museum’s reasoning: ‘well, what do these cars have in common with the Indy 500?’ Nothing really. So together with a 1966 Ford GT40 MkII Le Mans car, they are let go. With the proceeds of the sale, the Indy 500 museum wants to further improve the museum and the Indy collection.
The Mercedes W 196 Streamliner was only ever raced in closed-wheel trim at the high-speed Reims race in France and at Monza in Italy. Moss set fastest lap in the 1955 Italian Grand Prix in the Streamliner. After that race, Mercedes retired from motorsport.
More info to follow here.
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