A car still in the same family after 121 years: that’s a miracle.
Unless it's a fable.
However, this is the true story of the Mercedes Simplex HP 60 “King of the Belgians” from 1903 which won the Preservation trophy organized for the first time by Rétromobile and presented yesterday at the show.
This is one of the subjects that is most close to the heart of Romain Grabowski, at the helm of Rétromobile since October 2022: contributing to the preservation of motorized rolling stock.
The Preservation Trophy, which he initiated, is part of this challenge.
The Fiat 130 HP from 1907. Sylvain Reisser
For the first year of this award's existence, seven exceptional automobiles on display had submitted applications.
There were two vehicles from the National Automobile Museum in Turin: the Fiat 130 HP which won the Grand Prix of the Automobile Club de France in Dieppe in 1907 and the Itala 35-45 HP at the wheel of which Scipio Borghese won the Beijing-Paris expedition in 1907. The Swiss dealer Lukas Hüni had entered two very beautiful GTs from the 50s and 60s: a Ferrari 250 Europa from 1954 (chassis 0351 EU) and an Aston Martin DB5 Saloon from 1964. Among the competing vehicles also included two Bugattis, a Type 35C from 1927 and a Type 37 from 1926 from England.
Finally, the seventh competitor was this famous Mercedes Simplex 60 HP dating from 1903 and exhibited at Rétromobile by the Gooding & Company auction house.
The jury composed of François Melcion, co-founder of Rétromobile, Chip Connor, a great American collector, Laurent Hériou, vice-president of FIVA in charge of the technical commission, Mathias Doutreleau, organizer of the Swiss Concours d'Elegance, and yours truly, had the whole day to analyze the vehicles and refine his judgment.
At the end of the deliberations, it was the Mercedes which came first with 97 points.
It is ahead of the Fiat 130 HP of 1907 and the Itala 35-45 HP of 1907 tied with 91 points.
The Mercedes Simplex 60 HP.
Gooding & company
The state of preservation of the Mercedes - it has never really been restored in the American sense of the term - and its pedigree - it has not left its original family - won over the jury.
It is thus the property of the descendants of the English press magnate Alfred Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe, who bought it in 1903. Exhibited for many decades at the Beaulieu museum, this testimony to the beginnings of the automobile is one of the five surviving Mercedes 60 HP.
Equipped with a very modern body for its time, this car which could in turn be a touring car and a two-seater racing car - the rear part is removable - is capable of reaching speeds of up to 130 km/h.
Champions Jim Clark and Stirling Moss drove it at London-Brighton in the 1960s. The Mercedes will be one of the stars of a Gooding & Company sale at Amelia Island at the end of February.
It is estimated at more than 10 million dollars.
Gooding & Company