Someone just paid £19.6 million for this
For what looks like a rusted old racing car, someone has paid a world record price of £19.6million. What is it and what makes it so desirable that someone would put down such outrageous amount for it?
The car is a Mercedes-Benz W196 R Silver Arrow, a former grand prix race-winning car from the 1954/55: what is described as Mercedes-Benz's golden era. During that time, this car and its stablemates swept all the prizes in grand prix racing making them the most outstanding examples of engineering in the company's history. Only 14 were built of which only 10 are still in existence. Mercedes-Benz themselves own nine of them – six are in Mercedes' own hands while three are on permanent loan to museums around the world. This, the tenth car, is the only one in private hands.
What makes it especially valuable is that this is the grand prix-winning car driven by Juan Miguel Fangio, arguably the greatest Formula 1 driver ever. This is the very car which he drove to victory in the 1954 World Championship.
Its engineering heritage, its place in racing history as well as its rarity and the fact that it is almost completely original effectively made this car priceless, the limit of which was how badly each superlatively wealthy bidder wanted it. And someone wanted it badly enough to fork out £19,601,500 for it.
