It is one of only five known surviving original examples of the world’s first supercar.
Capable of speeds of 80mph, the Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP was the fastest production car in the world at the start of the 20th century and triumphed in races too.
Now this one, built in 1903 for Daily Mail founder Alfred Harmsworth, is set to break another record – as the most expensive antique car ever sold at auction.
Its guide price is ‘in excess of $10 million’ (more than £7.9 million) and experts estimate it could fetch £8 million. The record for a pre-1930s car is currently held by a 1924 Hispano-Suiza H6C ‘Tulipwood’ Torpedo which sold for $9,245,000 (more than £7.3 million) in 2022.
The 60 HP is being offered in classic car specialists Gooding and Company’s Amelia Island Auctions in Florida on February 29 and March 1. Its sale is due to led by British auctioneer and TV personality Charlie Ross, who described the car as ‘magnificent’ and ‘truly historic’.
Capable of speeds of 80mph, the Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP was the fastest production car in the world at the start of the 20th century and triumphed in races too
The guide price of the car is ‘in excess of $10 million’ (more than £7.9 million) and experts estimate it could fetch £8 million
The vehicle was built in 1903 for Daily Mail founder Alfred Harmsworth
The auction house’s president David Gooding said it is ‘one of the most significant early cars that has ever been brought to market’.
Alfred Harmsworth, who became the first Viscount Northcliffe, and his brother Harold, who became the first Viscount Rothermere, launched The Daily Mail in 1896.
As well as pioneering popular journalism, Alfred was also a trailblazer for motor cars. In 1900, he backed the Royal Automobile Club’s 1,000 Miles Trial, prompting RAC secretary Claude Johnson to write: ‘He at once put his purse at the club’s disposal and gave the scheme the utmost possible support in his papers at a time when other journals were scoffing at the automobile as being a disagreeable and unnecessary plaything of a few cranks.’
Alfred also developed a car collection at his home in Surrey and was among the first to order an HP 60. It is not known how much he paid for it, but the auction house estimates it likely cost around $10,000 in 1903 dollar prices.
Some 102 Mercedes-Simplex 60 HPs were built in Germany between 1902 and 1905. The auctioneers say that while most race cars of the era were ‘purpose-built monsters’ with virtually no relation to production cars sold to the public, the HP 60 could be transformed into a competitive racing machine by removing its rear seats and fenders and fitting a lightweight two-seat body.
In 1903, Alfred’s car – driven by early motor racers – set the fastest times at Nice Speed Week in France, and at Ballybannon Hill Climb in Northern Ireland.
An overhead view of the car. The 60 HP is being offered in classic car specialists Gooding and Company’s Amelia Island Auctions in Florida on February 29 and March 1
Soon after, it was fitted with its elaborate ‘Roi des Belges’ (‘King of the Belgians’) coachwork as seen in our photographs – a car body style featuring rear bulges incorporating two seats like tub armchairs which was used on luxury motor vehicles in the early 1900s.
The car’s registration number – A 740 – is among the earliest issued by London City Council, which began supplying registrations in 1903 with ‘A 1’.
In the years prior to the First World War, Alfred made regular use of the car, demonstrating its incredible performance to friends and touring with it throughout the UK and the Continent. He fondly referred to it as the ‘Old Sixty’.
Upon his death at the age of 57 in August 1922, the Mercedes was willed to his 12-year-old son, Alfred John Francis Alexander Harmsworth.
It was later restored and exhibited for more than six decades at Beaulieu Motor Museum in Hampshire. It also took part in the London-to-Brighton Veteran Car Run several times.
The auctioneers said the car does not run any more as it was decommissioned in the late 1960s.
