This 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500 K, available online through Bring a Trailer, currently has a high bid of more than $1.1 million.
Car of the Week: This Long-Forgotten Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Could Fetch $6 Million at Auction‘s 500 K Special Roadster was arguably the coolest car money could buy. With its flowing fenders, mile-long hood, muscular 5.1-liter supercharged straight-eight engine, and raked-back windscreen, the model was the dream machine of the period. Naturally, its rarity was part of its rarified appeal.
The tan-leather interior, with burgundy piping, was the creation of upholsterer Ken Dickman, whose artisanship has been showcased in cars that have won at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.Another 20 years passed before the museum’s workshop was called on to bring the Mercedes back to life and create a display out of the car. Their cut-price solution: to build a replica body made of fiberglass, which they mounted on the still-twisted frame.
“It was still a chassis and engine, so I essentially did what an original 500 K buyer would do back in 1934 and decided which body style I was going to commission, says Hopkins. “I picked the 500 K Special Roadster ‘long tail’ because it’s regarded by many as the finest German prewar design ever created.”
Yet for Hopkins, the truly standout part of the project was not aesthetic. “For me, the most intricate piece of work on the entire car was the radiator. It’s made up of around 10,000 tiny square tubes, each hand-welded together and mounted in the highly polished surround. There is no grille; what you see is the radiator itself. It’s a true work of art,” he explains.
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