{"id":13269,"date":"2025-02-04T17:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T17:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=13269"},"modified":"2025-02-04T17:32:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T17:32:38","slug":"notes-on-the-most-expensive-f1-car-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=13269","title":{"rendered":"Notes on the most expensive F1 car ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At \u20ac51 million ($53.9 million), the 1954\/55 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R \u2018Streamliner\u2019 became the most expensive Formula 1 ever. It was sold on Saturday, February 1st, at an auction, held by RM Sotheby\u2019s at the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous record was also held by a Mercedes W 196 R, a non-streamlined body, driven by the 1954 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. The car in question was auctioned by Bonhams in 2013 for $29.6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Mercedes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Usability<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The new record<\/a> in what is in essence a similar car proves one thing: over the course of a little over 10 years, Formula 1\u2019s popularity has skyrocketed, and that effect also shows in the prices collectors are willing to pay. Traditionally, prices for Formula 1 cars have been substantially lower than the prices paid at auction for GTs. Let\u2019s not forget, a top Ferrari 250 GTO could still outsell the Streamliner (but not the Mercedes Uhlenhaut 300 SLR coupe that sold for \u20ac135 million). The reason for that is easy enough to determine: usability. You can drive a 250 GTO to the supermarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Mercedes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That is not the case for Formula 1s, and thus they only had appeal to a smaller part of the collector market. This tendency is changing, as proven by other recent sales and for instance the Ferrari Corse Clienti program, aimed at using the F1 Ferrari you just bought (more on that in issue 13<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Mercedes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unique<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That it\u2019s the Streamliner that is now setting the record, can only be called just. This is after all the only Formula 1 car with covered wheels, and a perfect synthesis of Mercedes pre-war experience with the streamlined speed-record-breaking race cars, and the 1954\/55 Formula 1s. Only four W 196 R Streamliners were made. Fangio used this chassis \u2013 with normal body \u2013 to win the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix, and Stirling Moss used it to set fastest lap in the Italian GP at Monza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Mercedes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Indy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Having won the world championship, Mercedes retired from international motorsport and the Streamliner was donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, where it resided untouched until now. With the Indy museum refocusing its collection on all things Brickyard related, the Mercedes was one of the cars that were allowed to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Mercedes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a move similar to the Uhlenhaut sale, the car was brought back to Germany, where Mercedes Classic give it an inspection. In a lively sale, RM Sotheby\u2019s auctioned it of for a final bid of just under \u20ac50 million, which became \u20ac51 million if you take into account premiums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also firmly places the status of the most valuable Formula 1 brand in the Stuttgart area, which will surely lead to some teeth-crunching in Maranello.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At \u20ac51 million ($53.9 million), the 1954\/55 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R \u2018Streamliner\u2019 became the most expensive Formula 1 ever. It was sold on Saturday, February 1st, at an auction, held by RM Sotheby\u2019s at the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[121,295,348,280,1099,1638,1201,1709,433],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-13269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-auctions-results-sales-announcements","tag-formula-1","tag-indy-500","tag-juan-manuel-fangio","tag-mercedes","tag-mercedes-classic","tag-mercedes-w-196-streamliner","tag-rm-sothebys-2","tag-silver-arrows","tag-stirling-moss","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/25C0009_001.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13278,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13269\/revisions\/13278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13269"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fthb-sponsors&post=13269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}