A Mercedes-Benz W 196 R ‘Stromlinienwagen’ from 1954 fetched €46.5 million at an auction in Stuttgart, Germany on Saturday.
Including auction fees, the new owner will pay €51.155 million, according to auction house RM Sotheby’s. This is the second-highest price ever paid for a car.
The current record of €135 million is held by a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupé,’ sold in 2022.
The auctioned car secured victory for Juan Manuel Fangio at the Buenos Aires Grand Prix in 1955 and Stirling Moss set the fastest lap with it at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza the same year.
In 1965, Mercedes-Benz donated the car to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, which put the prized vehicle up for sale after 59 years.
