What do you give a five-time world motor racing champion when he retires? Not a gold watch, that’s for sure. Mercedes-Benz had no doubt what it would present Juan-Manuel Fangio with when he hung up his helmet in 1958: its ultimate sportscar of the day, a Mercedes 300SL Roadster. “Fangio” has been the only name in that car’s logbook for 64 years – and now yours could be the second.
You will definitely need deep pockets to add El Maestro’s Merc to your collection, though RM Sotheby’s, which is offering the SL for private sale, isn’t saying how much. With cars at this level, the number of noughts becomes a bit academic.
This is indeed a special car, far from being just a freebie that “the world’s greatest driver” drove for a short while as part of his sponsor duties. Fangio might have given Mercedes two world championships in ’54 and ’55 driving the W196, but by his last year in racing, 1958, he had returned to the Maserati fold. He remained synonymous with the three-pointed star however – so no surprise that for his first post-racing job the great champion was appointed as a Mercedes ambassador.
By all accounts he adored the car. It was presented to him on his 47th birthday at the Dorchester Hotel in London and thereafter followed him around the world on his ambassadorial duties; today the car has covered 72,951km and it is believed Fangio drove more or less all of them. It’s pretty certain he drove this car more than any other.
When Fangio moved back to Argentina in 1960, to sell Mercedes cars, he took the SL Roadster with him, putting it down as a “trophy” on the customs form to avoid the tax. He drove his “trophy” all over South America, even chauffeuring a newly-crowned Miss World in it for a street parade in 1978. Fangio’s nephew, Juan Manuel Fangio II, says: “That car identified my uncle.”
Since 1986 the metallic light blue convertible has been on display at the Juan Manuel Fangio Museum in his home town in Argentina. When Fangio died in 1995 the car passed to Fangio’s family.
Now it is looking for a new owner. As a “trophy” car – precisely what Fangio said it was – few machines can rival it. Even without the Fangio connection it would be a classic of the first order: totally original and with matching-numbers chassis, engine, body, gearbox, differential, hood frame, and hardtop. But as Fangio’s daily driver – complete with all the wear and tear created by the great man’s ownership, his non-standard gear lever and Fangio’s suitcase still in the boot – it is elevated into the car-collecting stratosphere.
Merc SL for sale, one careful owner, never raced or rallied… so what would you pay for Fangio’s car?
Images courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.
Keyword: You could buy Fangio’s Mercedes 300SL Roadster