Heck, the opening bid of $50 million would have set the record:
Eh, ain’t no Ferrari GTO. Somebody got screwed! But hey, it does come with 2 spares, so there is that.
I wonder if the other one has NO spares???
I’m not in the least bit surprised. This is the next best thing to the 722 Mercedes 300SLR and though Mercedes would never sell that one I’m sure the price would dwarf this new record.
Damn! Why did they keep the auction private? I would have paid $144 million, no problem.
Oh well, I’ll just make a private offer for the other one. Do you think they’ll accept $200 million?
That much money for something so ugly.
That is just a crazy amount of money. It’s further proof to me that there’s just too much money floating around the world.
I think it’s quite gorgeous.
I’d take the Merc any day of the week.
I do to but that amount of money is simply staggering.
Wow, inflation really IS affecting everything!
I would have called it “collector’s item” rather than “car.” The price has at least as much to do with its history vs. its value as a car.
Just in contrast the most expensive production car is currently the Bugatti La Voiture Noire at $13.4 million. It could be outdone by the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail with a price rumored to be $28 million once officially announced.
That would make a good Stephen Wright joke. “I went to buy a Bugatti La Voiture Noire but all they had was a white one…”
How the fuck do you climb into that thing?
A fool and his money are soon parted.
You don’t. You lower yourself into it. To do so, you need good knees and muscle control.
That’s pretty much the way of things with any rare item.
“value as a car” is a tenuous concept. A Ferrari has less value for me than the rather boring standard family car I own as it is far less practical.
This car in question is from a time when Mercedes were dominant and glamorous and this was a road-going version of a car that was an instant motorsport legend and represented the epitome of motoring excellence.
That rarity and that history means it sits alongside any work of art. People will pay huge amounts to own the original of the rare, the great, the significant and the beautiful.
Yes, no, maybe, hell no. Rare and significant it might me, but that car is fugly. Especially the 3/4 rear picture. Fugly with a Capital “F.” A Gremlin is better looking.
The 3/4 rear view is its weakest look, I agree. But they are simply stunning when you actually walk around one. The door sills are high and about a foot wide. But they cover the chassis. That’s one of the things that make a race car impractical for the street but M-B finished it off so nicely it becomes a focal point.
I do notice that in the third photo there is a bolt head sticking out of the center of the steering wheel. Now that could use a padded leather cushion.
Back in the '30s, Mercedes and Auto Union both had strong racing programs. Mercedes’s cars were front-engined, Auto Union’s were mid-engined. I’ve always thought the 300 SLR was a gorgeous car, and I’ve sometimes wondered what it would have looked like if it had been made by Auto Union; the same size and styling cues, but mid-engine instead of front. I don’t remotely have the artistic talent to pull it off.
beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course but…not great? maybe significant?
Those, I would suggest, are inarguable surely?
Definitely, but my sentence structure (disregarding the stoopid typo) should indicate that while I grant the rare, I have problems with the rest. One-offs (OK, two-offs) are insignificant if they do not radically change the way of the world, or at least their particular part of it. It is my understanding that these two cars did nothing of the sort. They are rare, and that’s it. YMMV, obviously.