The Most Expensive Car In The World Sold At Auction For More Than $140 Million
The three-wheeled contraption Carl Benz drove for the first time in 1885 was equipped with an internal combustion engine and an integrated chassis. He probably had no ida then that his automobiles would go on to become some of the most expensive the world has ever seen. While the top dozen most valuable cars ever sold include the likes of Shelby, Porsche and others, the top dog is a Mercedes-Benz. It's so far ahead of the next car on the list that it'll likely remain at the top for quite some time.
In fact, the two priciest come from the German carmaker. The W 196 R Stromlinienwagen race car (aka the Streamliner) was sold by RM Sotheby's at a special one-car auction held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, in February 2025. The Streamliner had previously been part of the world-famous collection housed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Not only was it the first ever sold to a private party, but it's one of only four complete examples known to exist. It sold for about $53.01 million, taking over second place and nudging out Ferrari's 1962 330 LM/250 GTO by over a million dollars. While that's a lot of money, it doesn't come close to #1 on the list.
In May 2022, a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe (another race car) sold for a staggering $142.4 million. It didn't just break the old record — it obliterated it, instantly earning the "unbreakable" record label, much like the 2,632 straight baseball games played by Cal Ripken Jr. or Lionel Messi's 91 goals in 2012.
But records are meant to be broken, right?
The 300 SLR (Super Leicht Rennsport) Uhlenhaut Coupe prototype was designed by Mercedes' chief engineer, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, specifically for Mexico's famous Carrera Panamericana road race as a hardtop version of its open-top 300 SLR racer. Only two — nicknamed "Red" and "Blue" for their respective interiors – were built. However, the Mexican government cancelled the event, and they were never used for that particular purpose.
The chassis was built using an amalgamation of the W196 Formula 1 racer with the wider proportions of a '55 300 SL gullwing coupe (one of our top five coolest cars featuring bird-like doors). Each had a 306-hp straight-8 (eight light-alloy cylinders with chrome-plated barrels) sitting just behind the front axle, attached to a 5-speed transmission. According to RM Sotheby's, it was one of the fastest road-legal vehicles of the era, able to reach a top speed of 180 mph.
Classic-car dealer Simon Kidston made the winning bid during the May 2022 invite-only event, but he was merely the mouthpiece for an anonymous buyer who apparently had been badgering Mercedes for an entire year to sell the car. The Uhlenhaut Coupe that was sold was "Red." "Blue" still sits on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. All of the proceeds from the sale went to establish the "Mercedes-Benz Fund," a global scholarship program serving children who couldn't afford to pursue environmental science projects focused on climate change education and research, as well as providing Mercedes-Benz mentorships to open up new career prospects.