A Mercedes 540K Particular Roadster in-built 1937 for the King of Afghanistan received Better of Present on the Pebble Seashore Concours d’Magnificence on August 20, 2023.
A surprising Mercedes 540K Particular Roadster has received ‘Better of Present’ on the Pebble Seashore Concours d’Magnificence held on the ultimate day of Pebble Seashore Automotive Week (17 to twenty August 2023).
That is the tenth win for Mercedes at Pebble Seashore for the reason that competitors has been held since 1950. Mercedes’ final two Pebble Seashore victories have been in 2021 with one other Mercedes 540 Ok Autobahnkurier belonging to Arturo and Deborah Keller and in 2017 with the Mercedes Kind S Touring belonging to Bruce McCaw Barker. Thus, Mercedes is the model with essentially the most Pebble Seashore wins.
The Pebble Seashore Concours d’Magnificence is without doubt one of the most essential basic automobile competitions worldwide, alongside the Concours d’Magnificence at Villa d’Este on Lake Como, Italy.
The “Better of Present” winner at Pebble Seashore was commissioned in Might 1937 by Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan, and delivered in September 1937. The French-educated monarch then introduced the automobile within the mid-Forties to the Afghan embassy in Paris, and in 1950, he gave it as a present to his son-in-law, who took it to Nice Britain. In 1953, the automobile was offered to a US collector.
The automobile has been saved in good situation and correctly maintained over time. The present proprietor is American collector Jim Patterson, who has received the Pebble Seashore Concours d’Magnificence with two different fashions: the Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Worblaufen Cabriolet (1924) in 2015 and the Delage D8 S de Villars Roadster (1933) in 2010.
Patterson purchased the automobile for $9.9 million at public sale throughout Pebble Seashore Automotive Week in 2022, about which we wrote right here final 12 months. After the acquisition, Patterson dealt with the restoration of the automobile, which was achieved by RM Auto Restoration in cooperation with the Mercedes Traditional Middle.
Mercedes produced 760 chassis for the 500K and 540K fashions of the W29 collection between February 1934 and November 1939. Of those, 354 have the 5-liter engine and 406 the 5.4-liter engine used since 1936. The engines have been mixed with at least 9 physique variations, and solely 58 models have been roadsters.
The King of Afghanistan instance is supplied with the 5.4-liter inline 8-cylinder engine and incorporates a excessive facet line of the doorways, curved physique contours with a recessed radiator, and a flowing rear finish with a hid spare wheel.
An analogous Mercedes 540K Particular Roadster was offered in January 2016 at a Sotheby’s public sale for $9.9 million.
