Feature: How the French Government Seized the World's Most Valuable Car
BACKGROUND
On May 5th 2022, RM Sotheby’s sold a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Coupe for $143m at an auction in Stuttgart, Germany.
The astonishing price caused shock waves in the collector car market for it was nearly $95m higher than the previous auction record of $48.4m paid for a Ferrari 250 GTO at an RM Sotheby’s sale back in 2018.
The 300 SLR in question, the last of eight cars built, was consigned for auction by Mercedes-Benz themselves and had remained with the Stuttgart firm since new.
Ownership provenance doesn’t get much better than that, but this particular car was even more special because it was one of just two SLRs equipped with Coupe as opposed to more common Spyder bodywork.
Mercedes had conceived the SLR Coupe for long distance events like the fabled Carrera Panamericana, a five day, 2000 mile dash across Mexico, because the closed body style offered improved high speed aerodynamics and better weather protection. Unfortunately though, the 1955 Carrera Panamericana was ultimately cancelled under tragic circumstances and neither SLR Coupe ever got to race.
Chassis number eight was the first 300 SLR that Mercedes had ever sold and, like the other six cars that survived the 1955 season, once surplus to requirements it went straight into the company’s vault.
Despite repeated requests over the decades from wealthy customers who wanted to buy an SLR for their own private collection, until 2022 Mercedes had never given serious thought to selling what was widely considered one of their family jewels.
However, nearly 60 years ago, one SLR did escape from Stuttgart under the murkiest of circumstances never to be returned.
This is the story of how it happened.
ORIGINS OF THE 300 SLR
Having returned to top flight motor racing with the W194 300 SL in 1952, a campaign that most notably yielded wins at that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours and Carrera Panamericana, Mercedes elected to sit out the 1953 season while it readied the W198 300 SL Gullwing for production and prepared for a return to Grand Prix racing in 1954.
The resultant W196 Formula 1 car arrived mid-way through the ‘54 season, winning on its debut at the French Grand Prix thanks to Juan Manuel Fangio while team-mate Karl Kling finished as runner up.
Fangio went on to collect three more victories from the remaining five races that season (in Germany, Switzerland and Italy) which, combined with his early season wins for Maserati in Argentina and Belgium, saw him claim his second World Drivers’ Championship.
For the 1955 season, Mercedes decided to dovetail their Formula 1 campaign with an attack on the World Sportscar Championship using a two-seat version of the all-conquering W196 draped in fully enveloped bodywork.
The resultant 300 SLR (also known as the W196S) would not be ready until round three of the series, but as only a manufacturer’s best four results counted towards its final points tally, Mercedes were confident they could still mount a serious title challenge to the likes of Ferrari, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Maserati.
TECHNICAL DIFFERENCES: W196 TO W196S
In order to convert the W196 Formula 1 platform into something suitable for long distance sports car racing, Mercedes created a more spacious long wheelbase chassis, and as there was no longer any displacement limit to comply with, enlarged the fuel-injected dual overhead cam straight six engine with its desmodromic valve gear from 2.5 to 3-litres.
In the interest of longevity, the motor’s compression ratio was reduced and the power take-off was from the centre of the engine via a gear rather than the end of the crankshaft.
With a peak output of 310bhp and a power-to-weight ratio approaching 350bhp per tonne, the new Silver Arrow was expected to reach speeds in excess of 180mph.
Initially, the 300 SLR appeared in open Spyder trim with its handsome aerodynamically-profiled body fashioned from ultra-lightweight Elektron magnesium alloy.
1955: EARLY SEASON & LE MANS 24 HOURS
The 1955 World Sportscar Championship kicked off with a 1000km contest in Buenos Aires which was won by a pair of Argentine privateers driving a Ferrari 375 Plus after the more fancied works Ferraris and Gordinis encountered trouble.
At the Sebring 12 Hours six weeks later, a factory-owned Jaguar D-type driven by Mike Hawthorn and Phil Walters took victory against limited opposition.
The Mercedes team made their highly anticipated debut at the Mille Miglia which took place over the weekend of April 30th and May 1st. Four of the new 300 SLRs would contest the thousand mile loop from Brescia, down to Rome and back again. They would take on works machinery from Ferrari, Maserati and Aston Martin plus a litany of well-funded privateers in what was easily the strongest field of the year so far.
Famously, it was the Mercedes duo of Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson that emerged victorious. They completed the tortuous route in a time of 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, a record that was never subsequently beaten.
Fellow Mercedes driver Juan Manuel Fangio was second in one of the sister cars. The Argentine maestro drove solo, but finished nearly 32 minutes behind his young English team-mate.
Prior to the all-important Le Mans 24 Hours, Mercedes sent a squad of four SLRs to the Nurburgring for the 228km Eifelrennen race which was the biggest German Sportscar Championship event of the year. Against limited opposition, Fangio and Moss romped home to take another one-two finish.
The 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours needs no introduction.
Mercedes took a three car team to the Circuit de la Sarthe and, after a slow start, during the second hour the highly fancied entry of Fangio and Moss began to close on the lead Jaguar D-type piloted by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb.
Unfortunately, soon afterwards the race was marred by a terrible tragedy.
While heading down the pit straight, Mike Hawthorn’s D-type pulled to the right-hand side of the track and started to brake for a pit-stop in front of Austin-Healey driver Lance Macklin. Macklin swerved out from behind the slowing Jaguar, straight into the path of Pierre Levegh’s 300 SLR.
Levegh ploughed into the back of Macklin’s car which acted as a ramp and launched the Mercedes into the air. The SLR skipped over a protective earth bank at 125mph and barrel rolled into the crowd. Levegh was thrown from the car and fatally fractured his skull. 83 spectators were killed in what remains motor racing’s most catastrophic crash.
The Mercedes crew considered withdrawing straight away, but with the death toll still unknown, they decided to consult the directors back at Stuttgart. This proved difficult as, owing to the accident, all the circuit’s telephone lines were down.
The organisers themselves decided that nothing would be gained by stopping the race.
Following Levegh’s crash, Moss went into the lead. By midnight, he and Fangio had established a two lap advantage over the second place Jaguar.
However, at 1:45am and with the scale of the incident now clear, the order came for Mercedes to withdraw while holding first and third positions.
Ultimately, Jaguar went on to claim its third Le Mans victory in five years.
POST LE MANS FALLOUT, ‘55 SEASON CONCLUSION & SLR COUPE
After the tragedy at Le Mans, a whole raft of events were cancelled to include the notoriously dangerous Carrera Panamericana which had been pencilled in as the 1955 World Sportscar Championship finale.
Having claimed the lives of 24 drivers and spectators since 1950, the Mexican organisers deemed the event, which routinely saw the top cars travelling at speed in excess of 175mph on public highways, simply too dangerous.
As for Mercedes, the company decided to abandon motor sport at the end of the 1955 season.
Despite the decision to quit at the end of the year, there was still a World Sportscar Championship to decide and, in order for Mercedes to take the title, they would need to win both remaining races and hope other results went their way.
Before the championship resumed, the Silver Arrows returned to action four weeks after the Le Mans tragedy with a two-car entry for the Swedish Grand Prix, a non-championship event which took place over 32 laps of the new four mile Rabelov circuit at Kristianstad.
Against a small but high quality grid, Fangio and Moss put on a demonstration of Mercedes’ superiority as the SLRs cruised home to an easy win ahead of Eugenio Castelotti’s works Ferrari 121 LM.
The race in Sweden was also notable as it marked the debut appearance for one of the SLR Coupes which served as a T-car and practice hack.
The same SLR Coupe (chassis number 7, which had been converted from the Spyder raced by Fangio and Moss at Le Mans) then carried out a similar role when the World Championship got back underway in Northern Ireland for the Ulster Tourist Trophy, an 84 lap race on a gruelling 12km road course.
Needing a strong result to stand any chance of taking the title fight to the season finale, the three SLR Spyders delivered exactly what was required with a rousing 1-2-3 finish led by Stirling Moss and John Fitch.
Four weeks later, the championship contenders did battle at the Targa Florio with everything still to play for.
Going into the event, which comprised 13 laps of the spectacular 72km Little Madonie loop around Sicily, Ferrari led with 19 points, Mercedes and Jaguar were level on 16 points and Maserati were fourth on 13 points.
Both Maserati and Ferrari would have to drop a couple of points if they did well at the Targa as only a manufacturer’s best four results counted.
Jaguar would certainly not win the title as they had achieved their objective for the year with victory at Le Mans and did not attend.
Mercedes took a three-car driver pairing plus two spare SLRs to Siciliy, one of which was the previously seen SLR Coupe that again served as a T-car.
Despite a twelve minute delay for repairs, Stirling Moss and Peter Collins put on one of the most memorable displays of sports car driving ever seen to take another famous win for the Silver Arrows.
However, their victory would not have been sufficient to hand Mercedes the title had Scuderia Ferrari not made a dreadful tactical error.
With Eugenio Castelotti and Robert Manzon set to finish second in their 860 Monza and send the 1955 title Ferrari’s way, Castellotti was forced to make a late pit-stop as it transpired he had already covered the maximum six laps permitted to any one driver.
This promoted the Fangio / Kling SLR to second and handed Mercedes the championship by 24 points to Ferrari’s 22.
POST SEASON
Following the conclusion of an epic 1955 campaign that had seen Fangio and Moss finish first and second in the Formula 1 Drivers’ standings and the 300 SLR deliver the World Sportscar Championship, Mercedes closed its competition department which, since 1926, had been led so successfully by Alfred Neubauer.
In a symbolic move ahead of an assembled throng of reporters, a tearful Neubauer, along with several other members of the successful 1955 team, placed dust sheets over the cars that had brought Mercedes such highs and lows that year.
While the likes of Fangio and Moss went on to pastures new, 64-year old Neubauer took up a position helping to promote the history and tradition of Mercedes-Benz, a role he retained for the next seven years.
ENTER THE SCHLUMPFS
During the 1950s and 60s, the collector car market was very much in its infancy and many old vehicles were considered little more than obsolete relics without much financial value.
Around this period, French brothers Fritz and Hans Schlumpf, who had amassed a fortune from the textile industry, were secretly buying up hordes of the very best motor cars.
The brother’s passion for fine vehicles had begun during the inter war years when Fritz Schlumpf had purchased a Bugatti Type 35B that he enthusiastically raced.
The years that followed saw the Schlumpfs become very rich men buying up wool spinning mills throughout Alsace, the Rhine and Northern France.
The catalyst for the Schlumpf’s move into serious collecting came in early 1957 when Fritz’ mother requested he give up motor racing. That July, the brothers purchased a wool mill in Mulhouse, part of which they allocated to their burgeoning collection. The Schlumpfs also had an adjacent building converted into a restoration workshop where ten mechanics were employed.
This restoration workforce later grew to nearly 40 personnel, all of whom had to sign a confidentiality agreement not to disclose their work or the scale of the collection.
1963 proved a pivotal year for the Schlumpfs as they initially purchased the 30-strong Bugatti collection of John Shakespeare in the USA that included a Type 41 Royale. The price for everything was $85,000.
A couple of months later, the brothers went on to acquire the assets of the bankrupt Bugatti factory that had been purchased by Hispano-Suiza. This 18-car collection included Ettore Bugatti’s personal Royale plus a mass of spare parts and technical drawings.
As normal, all these cars and parts were secretly stored in the converted Mulhouse mill.
By the mid 1960s, the Schlumpf’s collection numbered well into three figures and included a substantial number of historically significant Mercedes-Benz.
Through the course of research into their vehicles from Stuttgart, the brothers had become good friends with Alfred Neubauer who, despite his recent retirement, was still a very influential figure at Mercedes and one of the few individuals with any idea about the scale of the Schlumpf’s collection.
Around this time, the brothers had begun to discuss opening a lavish motor museum that would be the flagship of the Schlumpf Group.
The idea was discussed with Neubauer who, upon realising the brothers had accumulated the finest selection of privately owned Mercedes-Benz in the world, was convinced the Schlumpf’s should be loaned an SLR to serve among the museum’s star attractions.
Accordingly, in 1966, one of Mercedes’ seven remaining 300 SLRs headed to France under somewhat murky circumstances.
The car that arrived in Mulhouse was chassis 5, the SLR most notably driven to second place at the 1955 Dundrod Tourist Trophy by Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling. Earlier in the season, Kling had used chassis 5 at the Mille Miglia where it failed to finish. Chassis 5 also appeared at the season-ending Targa Florio where, in the hands of John Fitch and Desmond Titterington, it finished fourth.
During the next few years, the Schlumpfs quietly began converting their Mulhouse factory into the world’s finest motor museum. Work inevitably took longer than expected, but by 1976 everything was ready and the former mill had been luxuriously decorated.
The main floor was lit by 845 lampposts identical to those on the Pont Alexandre 3 bridge in Paris. Among the exhibits would be the SLR on loan from Stuttgart along with the best of the brother’s 600 strong collection of high end vehicles.
However, at this late stage things began to unravel for the Schlumpfs as the European textile industry nosedived owing to the emergence of cheap labour markets in Asia.
Having been the year that they planned to unveil their collection to the world, 1976 saw the Schlumpfs forced to lay off thousands of workers and declare bankruptcy.
Their still secret vehicle collection was discovered in March 1977 during a trade union protest when almost 2000 ex-workers occupied the Mulhouse premises and the Schlumpfs were held hostage in their nearby Malmerspach villa.
After three days, at the French authorities instigation, the brothers were taken to the Swiss border. They spent the rest of their days as permanent guests in the Drei Koenige Hotel in Basel.
Back in France, the brothers were accused of having misused their business to finance their hobby and for two years the museum was run as a worker’s benefit.
By 1978, the museum had attracted 800,000 visitors and most of the cars had been placed on the historical register of French artefacts.
By 1979, the scale of the Schlumpf’s debt had become clear and various creditors eyed the car collection as a means to recover their losses. A bankruptcy liquidator ordered the museum be closed.
However, the French authorities could see the opportunities the collection held for Mulhouse and the Alsace region so, in 1981, the cars, buildings and land were sold to the French state for 44m French Francs which was equivalent to around $7.5m US dollars or £4m pounds.
Considering that the Schlumpf’s pair of Bugatti Royales were worth comfortably in excess of $1m apiece at the time, and that the collection totalled in excess of 600 exceptional vehicles plus some significant real estate, the scale of the mischief involved in the transfer of these assets is clear.
On July 10th 1982, the Cite de l’Automobile officially opened its doors and today the fabulous collection accumulated by Fritz and Hans Schlumpf is on display as perhaps the finest single assortment of 20th century motor cars in existence.
Meanwhile, despite Mercedes’ best efforts to reclaim SLR chassis number 5 in the years that followed, the French authorities steadfastly refused to hand it over.
The car remains on display as one of the Cite de l’Automobile’s star attractions.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Mercedes-Benz - https://www.mercedes-benz.com, RM Sotheby’s - https://rmsothebys.com/ & Cite de l’Automobile - https://www.citedelautomobile.com/
