In Monaco, the marque showcased a 1955 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé that just lately bought for the eye-popping file sum.
It’s the form of factor that solely Mercedes-Benz may actually do.
On Thursday, on the Côte d’Azur’s new Maybourne Riviera resort above Monte Carlo, Mercedes-Benz capped off its Capital Markets Day summit for buyers with a few groundbreaking reveals. Components 1 racers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell helped debut the all-electric Imaginative and prescient AMG idea automobile in what, on another event, could be a really grand finale. This time, nevertheless, that reveal was succeeded by the revealing of a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, which turned the most costly automobile in historical past when it crossed the public sale block for an astounding $142.8 million earlier this month.
It’s exhausting to imagine that a automobile representing such a pivotal shift for AMG may very well be upstaged, however certainly it was. Lower than an hour after the Imaginative and prescient AMG was made public, Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, formally introduced what’s claimed to be not simply the world’s costliest automobile bought at public sale, however the priciest, interval. The streamlined coupé fetched a record-obliterating $142.8 million at an invite-only occasion presided by RM Sotheby’s on the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart, Germany, on Might 5.
The automobile is certainly one of solely two prototype racers developed by engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut and his crew for the 1955 Carrera Panamericana. That 12 months’s competitors, although, was referred to as off, and Mercedes deserted motorsport solely, all because of the notorious Le Mans tragedy that June the place Pierre Levegh and his SLR catapulted into the gang, killing the driving force together with 83 spectators. Uhlenhaut’s challenge was subsequently shuttered and this specific instance, match with a 297 hp inline-eight engine mated to a five-speed transmission, got here into his possession. The truth that its prime velocity was touted to be roughly 186 mph solely added to this 300 SLR’s mystique.
“Because the saying goes: By no means say by no means,” Källenius mentioned when breaking the information. “We now have been approached many instances through the years by collectors, museums and different events wanting to purchase an Ulenhaut; we’ve all the time mentioned no. Nevertheless it has grow to be more and more clear to us that having our heritage hidden away within the holy halls is, in some methods, a missed alternative. These unimaginable automobiles are artistic endeavors and needs to be extra broadly celebrated. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t or not it's attention-grabbing to see what it’s actually value … and what if we did one thing good with the cash, one thing for society?’”
That thought course of led to the formation of the Mercedes-Benz Fund, which the sale of the Uhlenhaut Coupé helped begin. Renata Jungo Brüngger, a member of Mercedes-Benz’s Board of Administration for Integrity and Authorized Affairs, refers back to the proceeds as “seed cash” for what she describes within the official assertion as a “international scholarship program supporting younger folks of their research, dedication and actions towards a extra sustainable future.”
It’s becoming that the situation on the French Riviera, not removed from the place Mercedes first got here to life on a racetrack in Good again in 1901, was the stage for the world’s oldest automaker to highlight these two disparate machines. Though separated by practically seven a long time, every now fulfills the identical function of illuminating the Mercedes-Benz’s street forward.
This story initially ran on Robb Report.
