I already made a post about this car, an icon of the German car manufacturer Mercedes, but I couldn't leave the opportunity to talk about it again 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster especially when its owner was one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, Juan Manuel Fangio.

This legendary car is currently being auctioned until March 25 by RM Sotheby's. The price is available only on request but it must be quite high. Already a 300 SL roadster is easily approaching a million US dollars so I wonder how much this car will be sold when you know it belonged to Fangio.

History of Mercedes 300 SL Roadster

A quick look at the history of this model. In 1953, the U.S. distributor for Mercedes-Benz, Max Hoffman, asked to Daimler-Benz to put a road version of the W194, racing car, into production. The first version was the coupé. But, Hoffman believed that a roadster will be a better idea. And he was right, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL was a huge success.

The more important is the history of this example. Mercedes offered this car to Fangio in 1958 as a gift for his retirement. It was immediately his favorite car because he often used it at events and drove more than 70,000 km with it. And he kept the car all his life.

Fangio behind the wheel of this 300 SL Roadster. Thanks to his humility and 24 wins for only 52 official races with four different manufacturers, he is considered the most famous and admired driver all the time. In 2003, Michael Schumacher said “Fangio is on a level much higher than I see myself.”

In 1986, Fangio aka El Chueco (the man with bowed legs) founded a museum in Balcarce (Argentina) where he was born in 1911 with many artifacts of his career including this 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster. And now, you can have it in your garage 😀.

Specification

This Mercedes 300 SL Roadster is equipped with 2,996 cc M198 straight-six engine mated to 4-speed manual transmission. With its convertible original hardtop, the roadster don't have the hot cabin problems of the Gullwing and always great performances.

This model is finished in its factory-correct color combination of light blue over its original cream leather interior as you can see the patina. Beautiful 🤑

At what price will this car be sold? Fangio best driver of all time? Many questions, I would say for the price around 1.5 million US dollars and for Fangio difficult to say because I'm more of the generation of Schumacher or Hamilton.