A 1954 Mercedes worth up to $70 million will be among legendary racing cars up for sale soon

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — A 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 Streamliner valued between $50-70 million is among the historic cars set to be sold by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

Chief among the selection of some of the world’s most desirable cars up for auction, the Streamliner was driven by famed racing drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss, according to a statement from RM Sotheby’s.

Fangio drove the car first, at a race in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before Moss took the wheel a year later at the 1955 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, where he recorded the fastest lap of the race.

Another storied vehicle set to go under the hammer to raise funds for the museum is a 1964 Ferrari 250LM, which was driven in the Le Mans 24 Hours race three times, winning it in 1965, as well as a 1957 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP64, which has a magnesium body, and a 1966 Ford GT40 MkII.

“These vehicles will be some of the world’s most significant cars ever sold,” Gord Duff, global head of auctions at RM Sotheby’s, said in the statement.

“There is almost nothing to compare them to, and knowing they are being sold for such a worthy cause is a great feeling.”

According to the statement, the museum has decided to sell a total of 11 cars because they are “not directly connected to the Indianapolis 500 or Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

The aim is to increase the museum’s endowment, enable it to restore and care for its remaining collection, and buy more artifacts to tell the story of the Indianapolis 500 and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Other cars set to be sold include early racing cars such as a 1907 Itala; a 1911 Laurin & Klement Racer, which features early active aerodynamics technology; and a 1909 Mercedes Brookland “Semmering Hill Climb,” which is “considered the most dramatic shift in technology and a massive leap in performance for cars, it established Mercedes as one of the greatest automakers of the time,” the auction house said.

Another of the cars is Sonic I, in which Craig Breedlove set the land speed record five times, with a fastest ever speed of 600.601 mph. Breedlove’s wife, Lee, also set the women’s land speed record in Sonic I, reaching 308.65 mph.

The cars will be sold at different events late this year and in 2025, according to the statement.

Historic cars have been fetching astronomical prices in recent years.

In 2022, a very rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz SLR coupe that had been kept in the German automaker’s collection was sold to a private buyer for €135 million ($142 million at the time).

That price makes it the most expensive car known to ever have been sold, according to Hagerty, a company that tracks collector car values.

The previous record was held by renowned car collector David MacNeil, founder and CEO of automotive floor-mat company WeatherTech, bought a Ferrari 250 GTO with chassis number 4153 GT for $70 million in 2018, the most expensive Ferrari ever sold at auction.

At the time, James Knight, group motoring chairman at British auction house Bonhams, likened 250 GTOs to some of the most exclusive artworks in the world.

“The Ferrari 250 GTO is the motoring market’s equivalent of Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ and a talisman for any top-end collection,” he said. “And the GTO that recently sold is one of the best five extant.”

This story has been updated.

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