1923 Mercedes Type 122 Indianapolis Racer

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Munich, Germany | November 2024

This is a Mercedes open-wheel race car. Not a Mercedes-Benz. Not a Mercedes-AMG. Mercedes. In 1922, Daimler started development of a racing engine for the 2-Litre European Formula, which the Indianapolis 500 was going to adopt for 1923. This meant Mercedes could go racing at the Brickyard.

That 2.0-liter inline-four was supercharged and was rated in period at 150 horsepower, but that is, by Mercedes’ own admission, what it made after a few years of development. On the grid at Indy, the motor put out about 125 horsepower with the supercharger engaged.

Mercedes sent four such cars to Indy for 1923. The competition history for this chassis, number 26913, includes:

• 1923 Indianapolis 500 – 8th (with Max Sailer, although his nephew Karl Sailer drove relief from lap 73 through 200)

The American Mercedes Company held on to the car after the race, and it later changed hands a few times before finding itself entered in the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup. But it was too outdated and did not compete. In the 1950s it was the property of Henry Austin Clark Jr. In the late ’70s it was in a Japanese collection, from which it was purchased by Bernie Ecclestone in 1995. It moved to its current collection the following year.

The car got a $200,000 engine rebuild in 2011 and now has an estimate of $4,150,000-$5,500,000. It also comes with a spare period body. Click here for more info.