Never before
It is the kind of heading you might think would never be written, but, yes, a Mercedes-Benz W196R racing car campaigned by Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio is going under the hammer.
However, following the sale of the one-of-two Mercedes-Benz 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé on 5 May 2022, maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised.
That Mercedes became the world’s most valuable car when it achieved €135,000,000 (c£114m/$142m) – this racer is predicted to reach in excess of €50,000,000 ($55,000,000/£41,500,000).
This W196R has been consigned to an RM Sotheby’s auction in Stuttgart on 1 February 2025, the first of several sales of significant competition cars in conjunction with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
Let’s find out more about it.
In the hot seat
This is the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Streamliner (or Stromlinienwagen) chassis number 00009/54, the first of its kind offered for private ownership.
It was originally finished as an open-wheel monoposto, on the 1954-specification, 2350mm-wheelbase chassis, and it was used as a test car from 15 December 1954.
Dazzling debut
This car, chassis number 00009/54, made its competition debut the following month, on 30 January 1955, driven by Juan Manuel Fangio at the Formula Libre Buenos Aires Grand Prix.
This non-championship race was an opportunity to test the new, 3-litre M196 engine under the bonnet of this then still open-wheel car’s body.
That engine was slated for use in the forthcoming W196S 300SLR sports car.
Doing the maths
Fangio wasn’t the only Mercedes superstar in that Argentinian competition, Stirling Moss, Karl Kling and Hans Herrmann also aboard open-wheel W196s.
The format comprised two 30-lap heats, the winner the driver with the fastest total aggregate time.
Fangio, in this car, took pole and after overcoming Moss was in the lead, but finished 10.5 secs adrift of Giuseppe ‘Nino’ Farina’s Ferrari 625.
He was second in the second heat, too, 3 secs behind Moss, but Fangio’s overall time meant this car, chassis number 00009/54, claimed victory on its debut.
Highs and lows
As the 1955 Formula One season progressed, the Mercedes-Benz team struggled at Monaco in May, despite Fangio qualifying on pole, valve-gear failure claiming three entrants and Moss taking the chequer in ninth.
The Silver Arrows were back on form at first Spa-Francorchamps and then Zandvoort in June, Fangio and Moss finishing 1-2 in both.
Then at Aintree for the British Grand Prix on 16 July 1955, Mercedes achieved a 1-2-3-4, Moss winning from Fangio, Kling and Piero Taruffi.
New clothes
But it’s photos like this for which this car is most famous, taken at the season finale.
Here is chassis number 00009/54 on 11 September 1955, on the banking at Monza during that year’s Italian Grand Prix, being driven by Stirling Moss.
Following testing at that track the month before, both Moss and Fangio wanted to race long-wheelbase W196s with the streamlined bodywork.
Fangio used a spare Streamliner built on an original long-wheelbase chassis from 1954, but for his British teammate, racing team manager Alfred Neubauer ordered a Streamliner to be delivered from the factory to the track as soon as possible, and a spare long-wheelbase chassis, number 00009/54, clothed in a streamlined body, soon arrived in Italy.
Star-studded swansong
In total, the Mercedes-Benz team had eight cars at Monza for the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, for what became the W196R’s final competitive outing.
Four were entered. As aforementioned, Moss and Fangio piloted the Streamliners, Kling and Taruffi driving open-wheeled variants.
Sweet 16?
Fangio claimed pole position, ahead of Moss aboard car 16, and Kling, and Fangio and Moss maintained their 1-2 off the line.
On lap nine, Moss took the lead, but very soon Fangio was back ahead and took victory.
Moss had to pit to replace his car’s windscreen, which dropped him to eighth, and he later retired with a failing piston, although he did set the race’s fastest lap.
Kling also retired, while Taruffi took the chequered flag and the runner-up spot for Mercedes.
Success story
Mercedes’ W196R was campaigned at 12 Formula One events and won on nine occasions.
The model also triumphed at a pair of non-championship races, meaning it scored 11 victories from 14 starts – that is a 78% win rate.
The famous few
When Mercedes bowed out of motorsport at the end of the 1955 season, the team had 10 examples of the W196R in working order, four of which had streamlined bodies.
Over the model’s career, 14 chassis had been built, numbered one to 15 (number 11 wasn’t assigned to a chassis, and both one and 15 were scrapped).
Bowing out
The official end came in October ’55, when the marque conducted a ceremony to officially retire the W196.
Dust sheets were publicly laid across the cars, which were then taken to Mercedes’ Stuttgart museum.
And all 10 remained there at first, but later four were donated to museums around the world.
On the move
This car, chassis number 00009/54, was one of the W196s to leave the Stuttgart museum.
In September 1964, a group from the Mercedes-Benz Club of America visited Mercedes’ Untertürkheim factory in a well-documented encounter.
There was a conversation between Wilhelm ‘Bill’ Spoerle from the club and Mercedes’ Friedrich Schildberger about donating a racing car to the new museum that at the time was planned for the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Historical ties
Mercedes-Benz had a link to the Indianapolis 500: Ralph DePalma won the fifth edition, in 1915, driving a Mercedes.
This is one of the few times the great race has been won by a European car maker.
No wrapping required
“In view of the special significance of Indianapolis in the history of automobile racing and also in particular view of our own company’s contribution, we have now decided to give you a 2.5-litre streamlined car, Type W196, built in 1954, as a gift for exhibition in your museum,” Mercedes-Benz president Walter Hitzinger and chief engineer Dr Fritz Nallinger explained in a March 1965 letter to Tony Hulman.
Hulman had taken ownership of the speedway in November 1945, then set the wheels in motion to revitalise the venue for the planned 1946 Indy 500, the race’s first post-war running.
Back to life
In Stuttgart, the W196R, chassis number 00009/54, was recommissioned so that during its presentation at the 1965 Indy 500 it could be driven.
The streamlined Mercedes was then shipped to the USA, via the port of Baltimore, Maryland, then transported to Indianapolis, around 600 miles away.
Signed, sealed, delivered
On Sunday 30 May 1965, this car was officially gifted from Mercedes-Benz to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation.
Twice at the meeting, Peter DePaolo, the nephew of the 1915 race winner DePalma, demonstrated the car.
A relaxed retirement
For nearly 60 years, this race-winning Mercedes-Benz W196R has been cosseted and cared for by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
It has made a few appearances at events, too, including the 1996 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance and 2003’s Canadian International AutoShow, as well as the reopening of the Petersen Automotive Museum in December 2015.
On tour
The W196R also attended the Sonoma Speed Festival in 2019 and then made a repeat visit to the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2020.
Its most recent appearance was at 2024’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it formed part of the Mercedes-Benz showcase.
Shining bright
Work carried out to this classic Mercedes-Benz racing car during its life in the USA include being repainted in its correct shade of metallic silver in 1980, with its number 16 roundels reflecting Moss’ competition number.
Ahead of its 2015 visit to the Petersen Automotive Museum, its paintwork was refreshed once more.
Crossing the block
And now chassis number 00009/54, in its livery from the 1955 Italian Grand Prix, is preparing for a new chapter.
It is one of 11 cars from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum that will be auctioned by RM Sotheby’s in 2025, when this W196R Streamliner, raced by both Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio, will return to its home town of Stuttgart for the sale on 1 February.
Find out more here.
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