A 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 pushed by the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio will quickly be accessible to automotive collectors with deep pockets.
The Mercedes race automotive is one among a number of from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum assortment that can be offered by RM Sotheby’s all through 2024 and 2025. Proceeds from the gross sales will assist fund the museum, based on a press launch. With an estimated sale value of $50 million to $70 million, the W196 will definitely contribute to that objective.
Fangio was one of many first stars of the Formulation 1 championship, competing from its first season in 1950. He received 5 championships, a report that stood for 46 years till Michael Schumacher broke it. Even immediately, solely Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have received extra championships than Fangio, at seven apiece.
1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 (picture by way of RM Sotheby’s)
Whereas he received championships with at least 4 constructors, a lot of Fangio’s success got here behind the wheel of the W196, which was launched for the 1954 racing season and carried the Argentinian to the championship that yr. It was a complicated automotive for the time, boasting a 2.5-liter inline-8 laid over on its aspect to cut back frontal space. The engine had desmodromic valves and mechanical direct injection, permitting it to develop 257 hp.
The W196 up on the market was constructed as an open-wheel automotive, like most grand prix racers. Fangio raced it on this configuration at a non-points race in Buenos Aires in 1954. The automotive was then fitted with enclosed “streamliner” bodywork for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the place it was pushed by one other racing legend—Stirling Moss. Mercedes then used it as a observe and check automotive earlier than donating it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 1965.
By that point, Mercedes had been out of top-level motorsport for a decade. The automaker withdrew from competitors following the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans catastrophe, during which Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR vaulted right into a grandstand, killing Levegh and scores of spectators. The W196 could be the final factory-run Mercedes F1 automotive till the W01 of 2010, though Mercedes had been supplying engines to McLaren and different groups earlier than that.
1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 (picture by way of RM Sotheby’s)
The estimated sale value of this automotive dwarfs that of the Fangio-driven W196 that offered for $29.7 million at public sale in 2013. That automotive, which featured open-wheel bodywork, was pushed by Fangio to his first F1 win with Mercedes on the 1954 German Grand Prix. Fangio additionally received the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix in that automotive.
Whereas it is a crucial piece of racing historical past, the Fangio/Moss W196 would not have a direct connection to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and is past the museum’s focus. All museums have restricted assets to look after artifacts, and deaccessioning less-relevant items is a standard course of. Different notable vehicles up on the market embrace the Ferrari 250 LM that received the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans and a 1966 Ford GT Mk II run by Holman-Moody and pushed by Mark Donohue at Le Mans and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
