Mercedes-Benz 500K Spezial Roadster
One of Mercedes-Benz’s masterpieces, from the point of view of both styling and technology.
This Spezial Roadster, with its V-shaped, split windscreen, long sloping tail, high doors, shell-shaped wings and mother-of-pearl dashboard, is one of the most beautiful examples of the type 500K. Only 25 of these luxuriously finished Spezial Roadsters were manufactured out of a total of 350 type 500Ks. The car is equipped with a five-litre, supercharged eight-cylinder engine, generating 160 hp; even without the compressor it could produce 100 hp.
This car was delivered to a successful London shipping insurer in 1936. In the fifties it was acquired by a butcher from Walsall. He used the car regularly but in 1956 he stored it in his barn, where it was rediscovered some 30 years later. Car enthusiasts consequently refer to it as ‘the butcher’s car’. At the end of the eighties the car was sold at auction to a Swedish collector, who had the car restored in Germany. The car won first prize in its class at Pebble Beach in 1994, 2006 it won the Briggs Cunningham Trophy, also at Pebble Beach.