WHEN THE NEWS BROKE that Mercedes-Benz had actually sold what had been, for over 60 years, one of its prized treasures, general reaction bordered upon amazement. While the public was left staggered by the price paid – €135m, £115m Sterling – most of the old car world found it infinitely more startling that Mercedes-Benz had consented to selling it at all.
Several previous attempts had been made to buy one of its two 300 SLR Coupés. These are the roofed-in versions of the truly fabulous factory team cars which in open-cockpit form dominated the 1955 Sports Car World Championship, adding that title to the team’s Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship success and simply reaffirming Mercedes’ ‘best in the world’ credentials. Their brief 18 months of racing between 1954-55 rubbed in the legend of their initial Mercedes ‘Silver Arrow’ Grand Prix years, 1934-39. The argument that Mercedes should sell one of the two Coupés was that only one of them has really
