1939 Horch 855 Special Roadster by Glaser

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Los Angeles, California | October 2024

Horch has an interesting history which we have probably discussed here before. They were a German luxury car manufacturer by the 1930s – the most luxurious of the four Auto Union marques. In 1935 they introduced the 850, which brought with it a fairly large inline eight-cylinder engine.

There were various versions, including the original 850, the uprated 851, and the uprated and shorter 951 and 951A. And then there were the sportier variants, including the original 850 Sports, the now-quite-famous 853 and 853A, and the ultimate iteration: the 855. The Horch 853 is a pretty sought after pre-war classic, but the 855 is pretty much impossible to get your hands on.

Part of that is the only built between five and seven of them. The other part is that only two remain: the 853-based prototype and this, the only production version left. It wears Special Roadster bodywork from Glaser. The 855 is powered by a 120-horsepower version of the 850’s 4.9-liter inline-eight. It had a top speed around 87 mph, weighed less than the 853, and typically had a shorter wheelbase.

This car was sold new in the Netherlands and was brought to the U.S. by a returning member of the military in the 1940s. It spent time in a museum in the 1950s, was used in at least one movie in 1959, and moved to its current collection in 1980. In 1992, Audi found out about the car and convinced its reclusive owner to lend it to them. Audi then restored it and kept it on display in their museum until this sale. You can read more about it here.