Racing great Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL is exclusively offered for sale via RM Sotheby's ..
Of all the great names which have competed for the podium on motorsport’s biggest stage, Juan Manuel Fangio can be considered the driver most driver F1 drivers admired.
With a racing record that brought home championships to Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Maserati, Fangio never wasted an opportunity to reflect glory onto his home country of Argentina. Fangio, as many motorsports aficionados already appreciate, had a brilliant run of victories in the mid-1950s punctuated by several potential tragedies that would have derailed the careers of lesser drivers. While driving a Lancia Aurelia GT in the early part of the decade, Fangio swerved to avoid a truck traveling in his lane and hit a telephone pole, flinging him from the car in the process. He survived intact with only skinned elbows to show from it. In 1958, while preparing for a race in Cuba which he won the previous year, Fangio was kidnapped, and managed to survive that experience relatively unscathed too. No wonder retirement must have felt welcome.
Once Fangio retired executives at Daimler Benz AG arranged to have a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster, painted Metallic Light Blue over Crème in a similar motif to the Argentinian national flag, delivered as a gift to the great driver at the Dorchester Hotel in London.
Available privately for sale via RM Sotheby’s, the Fangio owned Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster remains a true historical artifact. The gear selector, steering wheel, and seats have not been replaced, and as such are the very tools used to operate this sports car by the Argentinian expert himself. Fangio who was also nicknamed El Chueco (“the man with bowed legs”), and the leather-trimmed underside of the dashboard still reveals wear from the great driver’s knees as he shifted gears. By all accounts, Fangio must have sincerely appreciated this gift, as he used it throughout his retirement, amassing more than 70,000 km on its odometer from extensive touring throughout Europe and South America.
Presented with its original matching hardtop, this 300 SL is the ultimate example of a single-owner sports car where the first owner is regarded as the greatest driver to ever live. Perhaps the pinnacle road car for any aficionado of motorsport.
Interested bidders will be able to participate in a rather sporting format. Fangio’s priceless 300 SL will be sold in a sealed bid auction from 21st March to 25th March. Clients are invited to offer an all-in price. There is no buyer’s premium for the lot, meaning it functions more like a private sale. The final sale price will not be made public.
For more details on this once-in-a-lifetime sale visit www.rmsothebys.com
