A 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Stromlinienwagen has sold through RM Sotheby's for €51.155 million. The single-car auction at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart made it the most valuable Grand Prix car ever sold publicly and the second most valuable car sold at auction, behind the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé sold in 2022.
The car is chassis 00009/54, one of the most important surviving post-war Silver Arrows. It came from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, which had received it from Daimler-Benz in 1965. The museum said the sale would strengthen its endowment and support the preservation and development of its collection.
Mercedes developed the W 196 R for the 1954 regulations limiting Grand Prix engines to 2.5 litres. The factory team used both open-wheel bodywork and the streamlined Stromlinienwagen form, and the model became closely associated with drivers including Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss.
The result also reset the upper end of the collector-car market for racing machinery. A price above €51 million for one competition car shows how cars with factory provenance, major sporting history and extreme scarcity can sit in the same valuation territory as the most coveted road-going Ferraris.