tilomagnet

To answer my own question about this car.....I think it is 154075, listed on page 244 of Melin Vol II among the surviving cars. Also according to Melin delivered new to the King of Afghanistan. Apparently in the '60ies it was in Florida in the Silver Springs car collection. Anyone know the current whereabouts of this Roadster? I found various recent references to said collection, so apparently it still exists, but is the Merc still there? Anyone?

'02 for the Short tail auction could be correct, I think it was RM at Amelia and the car had been offered prior to that and didn't sell. Prices sure are always going up for these type of cars, but I still don't think it will bring those estimated figures, it might do if it was the only genuine SR on the market in a long time, but not with the other cars present IMO. As for the long tail the last one at a public sale was Ecclestone's 540K and that brought $ 8.1, I don't think 154140 will go for less.

would be great if true, the one known sister car of the Paris coupe is s/n 130942, which is pretty much identical except it's RHD. It was painted a dark blue on the most recent photos I have seen of it.

RM AUCTIONS This year's Monterrey auction is gonna be interesting for MB guys.... the 540K Paris show Special Coupe (one of two built I think), the one-off 1939 Horn Special Roadster, the 1935 Berlin show short tail Special Roadster, another 540 K A Cab with the earlier 500K style body and last but not least 154140 long tail Special Roadster from the Mann collection are up for auction. IMO the $ 3-4 mio. estimates for the late one off Special and the Paris show coupe could be realistic, though I think the Special Roadster should actually be the higher valued of the two, as apart from the striking unique coachwork it does have a much more interesting history and despite being brought to the SU after the war it made it out in relatively good condition and seems to have retained all it's major original parts. I think the $ 4-5 MM estimate on the short tail 1935 Special is too high....they had a lot of trouble moving this car at $ 2 MM a couple years back already. Without the set-back radiator this is obviously the least desireable SR, there are still quite a few of these around and this example - while there's not doubt that it's an original - lost it's original engine sometime in the last 75 years. Plus there's obviously stiff competition here, anyone with a couple millions to spend on a 540 K will probably go for the long tail. By the way, even as of the Amelia Island appearance of 154140 last year the the story of Eichmann using this car was still beng told. Because obviously for a fugitive it makes totally sense to drive around in one of the most flamboyant cars ever created. On the RM page there is a believeable history of the car given, not sure how accurate it really is, I've only known of this car when it came to Germany in the late '90ies when a well known vintage car dealer started a restoration.

Yep. The Von Krieger car.

The von Krieger Special Roadster is finished in grey with red leather, that's a different car. I think the Manns' 540 K spend some time in South America and is only one of two known cars with the covered spare in the back. It was BOS at Amelia in 2010, but had been shown by them at PB several years earlier already as well.

Quite correct. The place is called Sindelfingen, a small town very close to Stuttgart. That's where the MB coachwork factory/shop was located in those days. "Sindelfinger Karosserie" is a correct expression in German and just translates roughly to 'body/coachwork made in Sindelfingen'. There's no exact English translation for that I believe. Anyway the plate is genuine, no worries.

Thanks for digging up new pics. This is a car I haven't seen yet at least in that state. Do you have a s/n? When and where was the photo taken? There aren't too many RHD Special Roadsters, also refreshing to see painted wire wheels instead of the common chromed ones.

Definately more refreshing than red/tan with whitewalls ^^. I've just looked at a couple pictures of the Roadster inside the Lyon home and it does actually look a lot better than I remembered it from the PB photos. The color looked like some kind of purple in those pics. It'd be great if you got confirmation from Jan what the car probably looked like originally.

This is the car that is owned by General Lyons today, painted in a quite odd color. I've always thought the wings were a period modification, then returned back to original in the restauration. Do you have more info on this car? Who was the original owner and where was the Roadster between the '60ies and when it reappeared in restored state at Pebble in 2002 (?).

So it was one of the very few cars that came to the US prior to 1945. Couldn't have been more than a handful.

Not sure where I got the India reference from. Unfortunately not much seems to be known about the whereabouts of this car. Does Melin give a s/n for it?

Don't have the Melin books here with me to check, but I do know that the Cab A body style as seen on the right of your pics was available from 1936-39, so there were no two series, but rather both designs were offered at the same time for a while. I think you are right there are no known Cab As with the spare wheels in the back after 1938 or so though, so it seems that design was no longer offered at some point. As for the 5 speed gearbox, it must have been introduced some time in 1938. I know of a couple of Cad As and Bs as well as at least two third series Special Roadsters that have it (the King of Romania car that was found a couple years back is one of them).

BTW, does anyone know what happened to that unique "long-tail" Special Roadster in that picture a couple posts earlier, with the spare wheels in the front wings? It's been said it was delivered to India when new I think. I've always only known that period factory pic of the car, so I guess it hasn't survived but I was wondering if anyone has some history on that one.

I dont think there were actually two series built of the Cab A. There are very early 1936 540Ks that have the body style with the spare wheels set in the fenders as well as late ones of 39 already with the 5 speed gearbox that have that same body also. You could always order them with the spare wheels in the back also. It wasn t until 1939-40 when the design changed a lot and those last Cab As looked similar in style to the one-off Krupp Special Roadster.