1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Stuttgart, Germany | February 2025

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum had one of the world’s great collections of cars. And it’s slowly dissipating. They sold a bunch of cars with Bring a Trailer a few years ago, including some wacky but not super notable race cars, some classics that formed the original basis of the museum, and some recent racing-related things, like a Honda Accord Hybrid IndyCar pace car.

They sat on the best stuff, some of the stuff that, once it’s gone, will never be back. Visiting the museum was always a treat, because you never knew what amazing thing might be on display. Well, they are narrowing their focus to “Indianapolis” and the W196R streamliner seen here never raced there. So it’s got to go. Along with other previously “priceless” treasures. It’s pretty sad.

The W196 Silver Arrow was Mercedes’ last F1 car until 2010. It competed in the 1954 and 1955 seasons before Mercedes pulled out of racing after their cars started killing pedestrians. They built 14 examples of the W196R, and 10 still existed at the end of the 1955 season. Four of those would end up getting donated to various museums. This one, chassis 00009/54 ended up going to Indiana.

Of the 10 surviving cars, only four were ever fitted with streamliner bodywork. The car is powered by a 2.5-liter inline-eight that was rated at 256 horsepower. The race history for this chassis includes:

• 1955 Argentine Grand Prix – 1st (with Juan Manuel Fangio as open-wheel car)
• 1955 Italian Grand Prix – 14th, DNF (with Stirling Moss as streamliner)

RM estimates a sale price “in excess” of $55 million. We’ll see. The car will probably end up somewhere and will never be seen again. Click here to read a LOT more about the car’s history.