The 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupe’ traded hands for over $142 million.
Over the past couple of years, we have seen an alarming spike in the prices of used and new cars, whether these are everyday vehicles, classic cars, or hypercars. Naturally, the rarer the car, the higher the price. We’ve seen a McLaren F1 sell for a record $20.5 million and the record price for a Porsche 918 Spyder has surpassed $1.4 million. Heck, even the finest iteration of the BMW M3, the E46, has sold for a shocking $85,000 – $13,000 more than you’d pay for a brand new M4.
But these figures pale in comparison with a rumor we heard last week claiming that a rare Mercedes coupe had sold for a dizzying $142 million. Soak that number in for a second: one hundred and forty-two million dollars. Such a high number is surely false, right? Nope. RM Sotheby’s and Mercedes have confirmed that the sale took place, raking in €135,000,000.
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
The exact figure in dollars works out to $142,917,750 (at the time of writing), but why would anyone pay such a scandalous figure? After all, it’s more than double what the previous record-holder, a Ferrari 250 GTO, sold for at $70 million. Well, the GTO is a positively commonplace vehicle alongside the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupe.’ While Ferrari totally flooded the market with 36 GTOs between 1962 and 1964, Mercedes only made two examples of this specific car, one of which was famously piloted by Sir Stirling Moss.
By comparison, today’s Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series saw a production run of around 1,700 units. By the way, this is not the car that Sir Moss drove. If that car did come up for sale, would it break this record? Perhaps.
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
When it was born into the world, this car was the fastest roadgoing automobile on the planet, capable of reaching speeds of 290 kph (180 mph). This particular car was restored over the course of six months by the acclaimed technician and race preparation specialist Tony Merrick in 1986, but we doubt the only private owner of the rare racer (whoever that may be) will be testing its performance credentials.
Typically, when something as inconsequential in the grand scheme of things as a car changes hands for such a high price, somebody will inevitably comment that this kind of money could have been better spent on making the world a happier place. Fear not, Mercedes is spending all of it on establishing a worldwide “Mercedes-Benz Fund” that will “provide educational and research scholarships in the areas of environmental science and decarbonization for young people.”
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s