The 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 car driven by Fangio and Moss sold for €51,155,000 ($54 million) at a special RM Sotheby’s auction at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, as the most expensive F1 Grand Prix racing car ever and the second most expensive car ever sold at auction.
The 1954/1955 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen Formula 1 racing car with a streamlined body is the most expensive car sold by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum to fund expansion. The W196R sold for €51,155,000 ($53,917,370) at the RM Sotheby’s Stuttgart auction at the Mercedes-Benz Museum making this W196R Silver Arrows the second-most expensive car ever, the most expensive Formula 1 car ever, and the most expensive racing car ever. The early estimate was $50,000,000 – $70,000,000 but later altered to “In Excess of €50,000,000” in the run-up to the auction.
RM Sotheby’s Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz Museum 2025 Auction
RM Sotheby’s held a special one-car auction at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart on 1 February 2025 in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz Classic and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum (IMS) to sell the Mercedes-Benz W 196 R. It is one of 10 existing W196R Silver Arrows cars, of which it is only the second one ever to be offered for private ownership.
The sale of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum’s 1954/1955 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 with Streamliner Monza closed-fender bodywork was to fund the expansion of the museum. Other cars from the Speedway Museum Collection are offered at RM Sotheby’s auctions in Paris and Miami in February 2025.
- → RM Sotheby’s famously sold the most expensive car ever, a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, for $143 million at a special auction at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in 2022. Bonhams sold a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 single-seater, open-wheel racing car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale in 2013 for a record-breaking £19.6 million ($29.65 million),
1954/1955 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1
The 1954/1955 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 sold at the RM Sotheby’s Stuttgart Mercedes-Benz Museum 2025 auction comes of course with a special history. Although it never achieved an outright victory in a sanctioned race, it was raced in period by both Juan Manual Fangio and Stirling Moss.
The W196R racing car with chassis number 00009/54 was completed after the 1954 season and was initially built as a variant with free-standing open-fender wheels. This chassis was only raced in two races, of which only was a championship event.
For the formula-free “Buenos Aires Grand Prix” on 30 January 1955, chassis #9 was equipped with a 3-litre engine, which could run on regular fuel. This non-championship race was held over two separate 30 laps heats with the combined times determining the winner. Juan Manuel Fangio achieved two second-place finishes in front of his home crowd in both races, which secured him the overall victory. (Fangio also won the official Argentine GP two weeks earlier in a different W196R.)
For the rest of the 1955 season, the car was fitted with a smaller 2.5-litre engine to comply with Formula One regulations. On 11 September 1955, Stirling Moss drove it at the last race of the season at the Italian Grand Prix. For the high-speed Monza circuit, the W196R was equipped with a streamlined body and racing number 16. Moss retired after 28 laps but still scored a single point for setting the fastest lap time at an average speed of 215.7 km/h. (Fangio won the race in a similar Stromlinienwagen while Taruffi finished second in an open-wheel W196R.)
Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Silver Arrows F1 Grand Prix Cars
Mercedes-Benz withdrew from Formula 1 and World Sportscar racing at the end of the 1955 season. In two years, the W196R Silver Arrows cars won 11 out of 14 races for an impressive 78% victory rate.
In total, 14 Mercedes Benz W196R chassis were built of which 10 were in running condition at the end of 1955. Four had the special Stromlinienwagen coachwork, of which only chassis #00009/54 is available for private purchase.
After the completion of the racing activities in 1955, the racing cars were placed in the car of the factory museum. Four were later donated to major automobile museums including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum (1965) and the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in the UK (1973), which sold its open-wheel Silver Arrows in 1987 to fund expansion. (This W196R was again sold in 2013 for nearly $30 million — see below.)
Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 Grand Prix Prices at Auction
Authentic Silver Arrow cars from the mid-1950s very rarely make it to public auction. The last one sold was the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 single-seater, chassis #006, open-wheel racing car sold by Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale in 2013 for a record-breaking £19.6 million ($29.65 million), as the most expensive car ever (at the time of the auction). This was almost double the price of the previous record holder: a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa sold in 2011 for $16,390,000 by Gooding & Co at Pebble Beach.
The W196R sold by Bonhams in 2013 had a similar ownership history to the Indianapolis Museum car. Mercedes Benz gave the W196R Formula 1 racing car to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in the UK in 1973. In 1987, Beaulieu sold the car – with Mercedes Benz’s approval – to fund the museum’s library and other buildings. It has been privately owned since. It remains the most expensive car ever sold at an auction in the UK or in British pounds.
→ See also The Most Expensive Formula 1 Cars Ever Sold at Public Auction.
About the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum represents more than a century of motorsports history and is driven by its mission to celebrate and preserve the history behind the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500. Since 1956 when the IMS Museum first opened, it has brought to life the innovation, thrill, and cultural significance of motor racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What began with only 12 cars on display has become one of the world’s premier collections of racing automobiles and artifacts – with more than 55,000 artifacts and over 150 vehicles.
→ See 2024 RM Sotheby’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum Sale Cars Announced for the list of 11 cars heading for auctions. Top cars other than the W196R include a Le Mans-winning 1964 Ferrari 250 LM (on offer at Paris 2025), a 1966 Ford GT40 Mk II (on offer at Miami 2025), and several pre-First World War racing cars.