A Mercedes F1 car from 1955 became the most expensive grand prix car ever after it was sold for a whopping €51.15million (£42.7m) on Saturday.
The silver W196 R Stromlinienwage, chassis number 00009/54, was purchased by an unnamed buyer.
It is one of only four complete examples in existence and was driven by F1 greats Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio.
It was sold by RM Sotheby’s at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, on behalf of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).
The vehicle became the second-most valuable car to ever change hands at auction.
That title still belongs to another 1955 Mercedes, but a sportscar rather than an open-wheel racing machine. The 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe was sold for €135m (£113m) in May 2022.
The silver W196 R Stromlinienwage was sold for £42.7million at an auction on Saturday
Juan Manuel Fangio after winning the 1955 Italian Grand Prix and becoming world champion
F1 legend Stirling Moss pictured after winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1955
Previously, the most expensive grand prix car was also a Mercedes driven by Fangio – the W196 S from 1954. That went for $29.6m (£19.6m) after commission and taxes at Goodwood in 2013.
The W196 R was donated to the IMS by Mercedes in 1965 and was held for almost 60 years, before now being auctioned to raise funds for the museum’s restoration efforts.
‘It’s a beautiful car, it’s a very historic car, it’s just a little bit outside our scope window,’ said IMS curator Jason Vansickle.
‘We’ve been fortunate to be stewards of this vehicle for nearly 60 years and it has been a great piece in the museum but with this auction and the proceeds raised, it really will allow us … to be better in the future.’
Fangio and Moss piloted the car to five victories out of the seven grands prix in the 1955 season – the Argentine Grand Prix, Belgian Grand Prix, Dutch Grand Prix, British Grand Prix and Italian Grand Prix.
Fangio won four of these, the first being his home race in Buenos Aires on the way to the second of his five championships.
Meanwhile Moss notched just one win, also his home grand prix, at Silverstone.
The car had a top speed of around 290km/h and weighed about 700kg.
A view of the W196 R Stromlinienwage cockpit, which had a top speed of around 290km/h
An inside view of the V12 engine fitted into the vehicle, which weighed around 700kg
Nowadays, F1 cars are able to reach up to 375km/h, while their weight is pretty similar, at around 722kg.
The design of historic F1 cars are a far cry from today’s engineering masterpieces.
Modern F1 cars use sequential paddle shifters, while 1950s cars used a four-speed H-pattern box, similar to what one might find on a manual road car.
Today’s F1 cars also have carbon disc brakes that can withstand temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius, whereas the W196 R had aluminum drum brakes which were a great safety risk.