Tag Archives: race cars

Mercedes 17-Liter Rennwagen

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1908 Mercedes 150 HP Semmering Rennwagen

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | February, 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The famous Brooklands circuit in England held some… Formula Libre-style races back in its heyday. This meant that the cars were not required to meet Grand Prix regulations. So Paul Daimler built a monster 15.4-liter inline-four. The entered one of these cars at the Semmering hill climb in Austria, winning it with driver Otto Salzer

The next year they updated the two “Semmering” cars built with that engine to a displacement of 17.3 liters. Output was rated at 150 horsepower, a monster sum for the time. Salzer won at Semmering again in 1909, setting a time that wouldn’t be bested again until 1934.

The car later made its way to Australia before heading to California in the 1950s. It was sold to the pre-Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum for $30,000 in 1964. It’s now offered from the museum with an estimate of $7,000,000-$9,000,000. RM says the car is a one-off, Mercedes own website says two were built. Click here for more info.

Corvette XP-64

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1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP-64

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | February 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

In 1956, legendary GM designer Harley Earl bought a Jaguar D-Type (after it finished 3rd at Sebring that year). He wanted to put a Chevy V8 in the car and put it back on track. Instead, Zora Arkus-Duntov imagined what a ground-up Corvette-based racer aimed at the D-Type could be.

The car features a tubular spaceframe wrapped in a one-off magnesium body that carries some of the period Corvette looks. It has independent front suspension, inboard rear brakes, and a 283ci (4.6-liter) V8 that was slightly tuned and fitted with Ramjet fuel injection. It made over 300 horsepower.

Dubbed the Super Sport, the car would go racing, including:

  • 1957 12 Hours of Sebring – 59th, DNF (with John Fitch and Piero Taruffi)

And before they could swap a fiberglass body on it and take it to Le Mans, GM pulled out of factory racing. It was donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 1967, and they are now selling it. The estimate is $5,000,000-$7,000,000. Click here for more info.

Riley & Scott Mk III

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1999 Riley & Scott Mk III Series 2

Offered by Bring a Trailer | December 2024

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Riley & Scott: Bob Riley and Mark Scott founded their racing car constructor in 1990. They sold out in 1999 to Reynard, who went bankrupt in 2001. Bob Riley resurfaced that same year with Riley Technologies.

Mk III: debuted in 1995 and was the most famous (of only a few) products the company would offer. Iterations of the Mk III would race through 2005. Just 17 of the original Mk III were built from 1995 through 1998. Just four Series 2 cars were built in 1999 before being replaced by the Mk III C.

This car: was acquired new by AutoExe Motorsport in Japan. It’s currently powered by a 6.0-liter Ford V8. The race history for this chassis is below, but after a 1999 Fuji Speedway crash, the car was rebuilt in-house by AutoExe with the goal of being at Le Mans in 2000 as the AutoExe LMP99. That didn’t happen. It later made its way to the U.S., where it is now being offered.

Competition history: (chassis LMP-021)

  • 1999 12 Hours of Sebring – 35th (with Yojiro Terada and Franck Freon)
  • 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans – 40th, DNF (with Terada, Freon, and Robin Donovan)
  • 1999 1000km Fuji – DNF (with Terada, Freon, and Kaichi Satou)

Tiga GT286

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1986 Tiga-Buick GT286

Offered by Bring a Trailer | December 2024

Photo – Bring a Trailer

Let’s try something a bit different for a bit…

Tiga: founded in 1974 by ex-F1 drivers Tim Schenken and Howden Ganley. It was based in the U.K. and built open-wheel and sports racing prototypes through 1989. A few companies have owned the name since, and “Tiga” has appeared on a few race cars here and there over the years.

GT286: only 10 of these were built for the 1986 season. They were called GT286 if they were built for IMSA Lights and GC286 if they were bought for Group C.

This car: competed in IMSA Lights with owner/driver Charles Morgan, who won his class at Watkins Glen. The chassis was used by various teams (in various configurations) into the 1995 season before being retired. It was restored in the 2000s and is powered by a 4.2-liter Buick V6. It has since competed in events like the Le Mans Classic. Click here for more info.

W196R Streamliner

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1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen

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

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

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.

DTM Audi TT

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2000 Audi TT-R DTM

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

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Audi launched the TT for the 1999 model year. What better way to get a new sports car on people’s radars than to take it racing? It just so happened that the reformed DTM was going to launch for the 2000 season. While Audi did not officially compete alongside Mercedes-Benz and Opel, their cars were on the grid with Abt Sportsline.

Abt entered four TT-Rs for the 2000 DTM season. The cars are not real TTs as they are silhouette tube-frame racing cars. This car is chassis #001 and is powered by a 450-horsepower V8. It was primarily raced by Laurent Aiello, though the TT-Rs did not have great success in 2000.

This car entered private ownership in 2001 and was restored between 2020 and 2021. It now has an estimate of $435,000-$650,000. More info can be found here.

Delahaye 135 S

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1936 Delahaye 135 S

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | London, U.K. | November 2, 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Grand Prix racing in the 1930s was a pretty competitive era with various countries flinging their best automakers into the field. France had Delage, Bugatti, and Delahaye all competing at one time or another, and Delahaye’s brightest car of the period was the 135, which it took racing in the form of the 135 S.

Just 20 examples of the 135 S were built, and this is the second-to-last. It was campaigned by Delahaye themselves. It competed at Reims with Alberto Divo behind the wheel and later changed hands that season in the U.K., becoming a vehicle for Prince Bira, who won the 12 Hours of Donington in it. Other entries included:

  • 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans – 8th (with Ian Connell and Rob Walker)
  • 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans – 24th, DNF (with Tony Rolt and Guy Jason-Henry)

That 1949 race ended with the 3.6-liter inline-six failed… as no one had rebuilt it since before the prior Le Mans. The car continued to race into the mid 1950s. In 1970 it was purchased by Rob Walker, who raced it in ’39, and restored. It’s remained with his family since. The car now has an estimate of $1,300,000-$1,950,000. More info can be found here.

Nacional Pescara Race Car

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1929 Nacional Pescara 3-Litre Competition

Offered by Aguttes | Brussels, Belgium | October 2024

Photo – Aguttes

Nacional Pescara was supposed to be the national motor company of Spain. It had government backing and was spurred on by Argentinian engineer Raul Pateras Pescara. Founded in 1929, Pescara tried to prove the car’s worth via competition, and production got under way in 1930.

The production cars, like this early racing special, were powered by a 3.0-liter DOHC inline-eight that made 125 horsepower. Not bad for a start-up in a country not exactly known for their cars, Hispano-Suiza aside. But the timing was all wrong. Even with all of the government funding, the company only managed to make about 12 production cars and two or three race cars before the money ran out and they closed up in 1932.

This is the only survivor. One of the racers (unclear if it was this one) won rounds during the 1931 European Hillclimb Championship, and this car was entered for the 1932 Monaco Grand Prix, but did not start. It’s been in the same family since the 1940s and now has an estimate of $660,000-$880,000. Click here for more info.

RAM Formula One

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1983 RAM March-Cosworth 01

Offered by Mecum | Monterey, California | August 2024

Photo – Mecum

RAM Racing was founded in 1975 by Mike Ralph and John Macdonald. They first appeared on the F1 grid in 1976 with year-old Brabham chassis. Then they ran March and Williams chassis in 1977 and 1980, respectively. For 1983, they debuted the RAM March 01.

It was a derivative, or evolution, of the March 821 F1 car and was the first RAM chassis designed/built in-house. Power is from a 3.0-liter Ford-Cosworth V8 that makes 530 horsepower. The 1983 season was a disaster, with the 01 failing to qualify for all but three races it entered. It made the first two events in 1984 before being replaced by the RAM 02. In 1985, they ran the RAM 03 before folding.

The competition history for this chassis, whose number is not provided, is said to include:

  • 1983 Brazilian Grand Prix – 15th (with Eliseo Salazar)
  • 1983 South African Grand Prix – 12th (with Kenny Acheson)

Both Jacques Villeneuve, Sr. and Jean-Louis Schlesser both DNQ’d the car during that season. This former F1 car has since been used a fair bit in historic racing and now has an estimate of $400,000-$650,000. More info can be found here.

Force India VJM01

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2008 Force India VJM01

Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | July 2024

Photo – Bonhams

The Midland F1 team was what Jordan Grand Prix became for the 2006 season. At the end of ’06, they sold out to Spyker, who produced one car for F1: the Spyker F8-VII. During the 2007 season, Spyker was bought by Vijay Mallya, who was going to rename it Force India for 2008.

The first Force India race car chassis were actually slightly updated Spykers from the year before. They built a couple of chassis on their own too, which is what this is, apparently (chassis VJM01-05). It would’ve been powered by a 2.4-liter Ferrari V8 making 750 horsepower. Now it’s just a rolling show car with a Dexter Brown “art car” livery that was created for a 2011 charity auction.

The actual competition history for this chassis consists of:

  • 2008 Australian Grand Prix – 21st, DNF (with Giancarlo Fisichella)
  • 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix – 12th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix – 12th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Spanish Grand Prix – 10th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Turkish Grand Prix – 20th, DNF (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 French Grand Prix – 18th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 British Grand Prix – 17th, DNF (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 German Grand Prix – 16th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix – 15th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 European Grand Prix – 14th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Belgian Grand Prix – 17th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Italian Grand Prix – 20th, DNF (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Singapore Grand Prix – 14th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Japanese Grand Prix – 16th, DNF (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Chinese Grand Prix – 17th (with Fisichella)
  • 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix – 18th (with Fisichella)

The estimate here is $100,000-$150,000. Click here for more info.