Described as a 'titan of the pre-war era', the 1928 Mercedes-Benz S Type starred
The long-awaited Goodwood Revival auction from Bonhams saw a "lost" 1928 Mercedes-Benz S Type star as top lot on September 15.
The S Type only has 8,375 miles on the odometer
The discovery of the Mercedes 26/120/180 "S" was described as "one of the greatest and most important car finds of the last decade" by the auction house.The car isone of the earliest production models of the coveted supercharged S series and has remained in unrestored condition with the same family since new.
Capable of more than 100mph, the S Type was first seen at Nurburgring in 1927, where - driven by Rudy Carraciola - it achieved the fastest lap of the day to win the five-litre class. This win led to the manufacture of production cars, one of which the current owner's grandfather bought in May 1928.
Having been laid up in the same garage since the 1950s and with only 8,375 miles on the odometer, the car surfaced for the first time at the Goodwood auction. Expected to make in the region of 1.5m ($2.4m), it sailed past this to comfortably reach 2.8m ($4.5m). Its value would have been heightened far past this if the coachwork had been made by Mercedes.
Bonhams currently holds the auction record for any Mercedes "S" Series car, after a 1929 Mercedes-Benz 710 SSK 27/180/250 Sports Two Seater sold for 4.18m in another Goodwood Revival sale in 2004.
The auction's second highest bids were brought by the ex-Guiseppe Campari 1931 Maserati Tipo 26 Sport Road Racing four-seater, which made 1.6m. A direct competitor of Tim Birkin's Alfa Romeo 8C-23000 in its day, this was an extremely rare and well presented example of one of the most illustrious Italian-made vintage road racing cars.
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