IMS Museum sells ‘historically significant’ Mercedes-Benz at auction for record price

A Mercedes-Benz race car that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum has owned for 59 years sold at auction Saturday in Germany for nearly $54 million, becoming the most valuable Grand Prix car ever sold, according to auction company RM Sotheby’s.

The 1954 W 196 R Stromlinienwagen was donated by Mercedes-Benz in 1965 to the nonprofit museum, which announced last summer it had partnered with Ontario-based RM Sothebys to sell 11 of its most valuable cars with the goal of raising $100 million for its endowment.

RM Sothebys called the Mercedes-Benz “one of the world’s most historically significant racing cars” and said it was the first Streamliner-bodied W 196 R ever offered for private ownership.

It was driven by future five-time drivers’ champion Juan Manuel Fangio to victory at the 1955 Buenos Aires Grand Prix and also by Stirling Moss at the 1955 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

“It’s hard to describe the significance of this sale,” said Gord Duff, RM Sotheby’s global head of auctions, in a statement. “This car is simply one of the most important racing cars in history and it’s an honor for RM Sotheby’s to sell it so successfully to benefit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.”

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The car sold at a standalone auction at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, for nearly 51.16 million euros, or about $53.92 million after the what the auction company described as a “heated bidding battle over the phones and in person.” RM Sothebys, which had estimated it would sell for $50 million, did not disclose the name of the buyer.

The race car became the second most valuable car ever sold, the auction company said. In 2022, RM Sotheby’s sold a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut Coupé” for 135 million eruos.

“The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum has been honored to care for and share the W 196 R within our museum,” the museum’s president, Joe Hale, said in a statement Saturday. “But the sum it has achieved today is a transformative contribution to increase our endowment and long-term sustainability as well as the restoration and expansion of our collection.”

The IMS Museum has chosen to sell cars that are not connected to the museum’s mission of promoting and preserving the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. Many of the cars on the list came from the Hulman family’s historical collection.

SM Sothebys is scheduled on Wednesday in Paris to auction a 1965 Ferrari 250LM that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The IMS Museum purchased the car from Chinetti Motors in 1970, a few months after it completed the 24 Hours of Daytona race. The auction house has estimated it could sell for $30 million.

Hale told IBJ in August that IMS Museum officials spoke with several auction houses about listing the cars, with most indicating they could sell for about $120 to $150 million in total. The museum has not said how much RM Sotheby will keep in commission, but generally, auction houses charge about 5% to 10% of the sale price.

The museum’s move to auction the vehicles comes amid its $64 million overhaul of its space at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The museum, which operates independently of the Penske Entertainment-owned track, said last month it would reopen to the public on April 2.

The museum closed in November 2023 for a complete remodel of its interior, which will modernize its 100,000-square-foot structure and offer a new mezzanine level, multiple exhibit spaces and an educational area.

The most recent car sales are not the first for the museum. In 2020 and 2021, it also sold off dozens of other cars from its collection that were rarely put on display and didn’t fit the organization’s needs, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars.