Junkyard queen Mercedes-Benz 300SL leads Rudi Klein sale
The curtains have closed on RM’s Rudi Klein Sale and the dust and disrepair didn’t stop huge amounts of money changing hands.
The sale was led by a Mercedes-Benz 300SL that sold for $9,355,000 (£7,214,000) despite, as was customary at Klein’s place, having sat for more than 50 years unused. Expect to see it restored and at a star-studded concours near you soon.
Klein’s junkyard was the final resting place for many a priceless exotic; the SL300 arrived in 1976 and hadn’t moved since, as was its keeper’s penchant for buying rare cars cheap before sitting back and watching prices rocket to galactic heights. Klein bought the car for just $30,000 in 1976, which, even taking account of inflation, represents a markup of nearly $9.2 million. Not a bad day’s work.
Klein’s strategy had other benefits. Protected in his premises, the Merc had its original interior, an original body, engine, gearbox, rear axle, steering box and front spindles. Sadly, the car’s paint (it was only SL300 supplied in black) was swapped for silver at some stage in its life.
The SL300 led the sale, but it was just one of a number of priceless classics to find refuge at Klein’s place, including a 1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K coupé built to the one-off specification of racing driver, Rudi Caracciola, that sold for $4,130,000 (£3,189,000).
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Born in Germany to Italian parents, Caracciola was the first non-Italian to win the Mille Miglia and star of the Mercedes F1 team in the 1930s. He still holds the official record for the fastest speed recorded on the autobahn, clocked at 268.9mph in a Mercedes W125.
He was a big deal, big enough for Mercedes to give him this 500K coupé. And it wasn’t an off-the-peg job, the car was tailored to Caracciola’s exacting requirements with a Roadster-Limousine designation that denoted its taller windscreen and roofline.
Its keeper restored the car in 1963 and it featured at Pebble Beach twice, winning Best in Class in 1977, before Rudi Klein bought the car in 1979, drove it for a bit before parking it up and never touching it again.
One of two remaining 1939 Horch 855s bucked the trend of the sale, being that it was resorted and immaculately presented. It was the third-placed lot of the day, selling for $3,305,000 (£2.552,000).
Until recently, the car was displayed at the Audi Forum museum in Ingolstadt – an arrangement between Audi and Klein that included a full two-and-a-half-year restoration in Germany – and looked fabulous despite needing mechanical recommissioning.
The three highest sellers were joined by plenty more magical metal in varying states of disrepair. Cars included a 1964 Iso Grifo A3/L Spider Prototype by Bertone selling for $1,875,000 (£1,447,000), a 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400 by Bertone that, despite a thick layer of dust, sold for $1,325,000 (£1,022,000) and a Mercedes-Benz SL300 Roadster that, even with a flat tyre and a missing headlight, went for $1,187,500 (£916,386).
Like Beaulieu Autojumbo on steroids, the Klein sale also offered parts for some of the rarest cars on earth. As such, one punter bought a Miura S engine and other parts for $216,000 (£167,000), a Ferrari 213 275 GTB/GTS engine block and cylinder heads made $42,000 (£32,000), and a crumpled 1966 Ferrari 330 GTC body went for $39,200 (£30,300).
That’s just a snapshot from an extraordinary sale the likes of which we’ll not see again; head to the RM Sotheby website for all the results.