Benz wins at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

THE prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Best in Show has been won by a classic Mercedes-Benz for an unprecedented tenth time.

The announcement makes the German manufacturer the most successful in the event’s 73-year history, and one the marque says it is rightfully proud of.

Taking the coveted trophy this year was a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster (W29-series) with an extraordinary past. The vehicle was originally ordered in May 1937 for Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan, and delivered in September of the same year.

According to records, the King opted for a particularly fascinating product from Mercedes-Benz: the Special Roadster with a Sindelfingen body is a highly elegant sculpture exuding performance and speed.

The 540 K Special Roadster is characterised by the high sideline of the doors, curved body contours with a recessed radiator and a flowing rear-end with concealed spare wheel.

After only five changes of ownership in seven decades, the current owner, Jim Patterson, purchased the vehicle at auction during the Pebble Beach Automotive Week in 2022, for $US9.9 million ($A15.7m).

“The 540 K Special Roadster winning the Best of Show title at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance crowns the immense commitment of RM Auto Restoration and Mercedes-Benz Heritage to the restoration of this outstanding vehicle,” said Mercedes-Benz head of heritage, Marcus Breitschwerdt.

Since being purchased by its current owner, the Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster has undergone an extensive restoration to what has been described as the “strictest standards of authenticity”.

RM Auto Restoration worked closely with both the Mercedes-Benz Classic Centre and experts from Mercedes-Benz Heritage following detailed documentation of the history of the royal sports car throughout the process.

Mr Breitschwerdt said the comprehensive know-how that goes into the expert reports, complied by Mercedes-Benz Classic, are esteemed worldwide for their “especially rare and high-quality content”.

Each report forms the basis for a detailed description of the biography of the vehicle in question and is “a precise and uniquely authoritative assessment of its authenticity”.

“We are proud to have contributed to this success story with the unique expertise of our Classic Centre and the archives. The intensive and good cooperation with RM Auto Restoration during the past months has made this success possible,” he added.

This year’s Best of Show winner was ordered by the Afghan royal court in 1937 and delivered in the autumn of that year. In the mid-1940s, the French-educated monarch brought the vehicle to the Afghan embassy in Paris.

The supercharged sports car arrived in Great Britain in 1950 as a gift for the King’s son-in-law and was sold to a US collector in 1953.

Throughout its long and varied history, the 540 K Special Roadster has always been maintained and preserved in authentic condition. To date, the vehicle has only “very few miles” on the odometer.

Previous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Best of Show winners from the current owner of the 540 K Special Roadster include a 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Worblaufen Cabriolet (winner 2015), a 1933 Delage D8 S de Villars Roadster (winner 2010).

Mercedes-Benz has recently won Best of Show at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance with Arturo and Deborah Keller’s Mercedes-Benz 540 K Autobahnkurier (winner 2021) and Bruce McCaw’s Barker-bodied Mercedes-Benz Type S Touring Car (winner 2017).

The chassis of the former, much like this year’s winner, was produced at Mercedes-Benz’s Untertürkheim plant which is known to have built a total of 760 chassis for the 500 K and 540 K models of the W29-series between February 1934 and November 1939.

Of those, 354 were fitted with a 5.0-litre engine (500 K) and 406 with the 5.4-litre engine (540 K) used from 1936 onwards.

A total of nine body variants were available, all of which were completed at Mercedes-Benz’s special vehicle workshop in Sindelfingen. According to Benz’s records, approximately 60 examples were manufacturer with roadster bodywork.