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Mercedes 300SLR repossessed from Henry Ford Museum


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#1 HistoryBuff

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Posted 10 February 2014 - 23:43

I was researching the Ferrari Testa Rossa the Henry Ford Museum traded for some old American car and then remembered that for several decades they used to have a Mercedes 300SLR. I heard long ago that they got the car in trade for the secret of "floating glass" but thought the Museum was pretty well separated from Ford Motor Co mfg operations so was surprised they would give a multi-million dollar industrial secret away for a mere old car. Also I heard Ford wanted to play with the desmodromic valve system. It would seem that this is just rumor in either case because neither company could use the other firm's idea unless they paid patent rights.

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I also read recently that Mercedes got the car back. Maybe after the problem in England with the W196 they decided to read their contracts more closely and discovered the 300SLR was only on loan to Ford and they could ask for it back.

 

It might be number 0704. I also heard it was one of the ones with the airbrake (big flap behind the driver) but can't remember because I last saw it oh, 50 years ago. I'd love to hear what they had to pay for it if they had to buy it back.

 



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#2 Mal9444

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Posted 14 February 2014 - 13:13


It might be number 0704. I also heard it was one of the ones with the airbrake (big flap behind the driver) but can't remember because I last saw it oh, 50 years ago. I'd love to hear what they had to pay for it if they had to buy it back.

If it had an airbrake it was probably not 0004 (not sure where the 07.. numbering came from). 0004 was raced in September 1955 - the only year in which the 300SLR raced - at Dundrod and again, its last appearance in a race, in Sicily at the Targa Florio. It won both races, in the hands of Stirling Moss (with John Fitch at Dundrod and with Peter Collins in Sicily). In neither of those races did it have an air-brake (which was a Le Mans-only mod, although at least one air-brake equipped 300slr went to Dundrod as a practice car, but was not raced there). 0004 possibly went to Le Mans and would have had an air brake there - but that feature definitely was removed after that race.  0004's best-known victory, also in the hands of S Moss, was the 1955 Mille Miglia. I believe that it is indeed the same car that is now known as '722' and was restored by Stutgart to Mille Miglia configuration and which did so much demo work with the original driver at the wheel before being permanently retired to the Mercedes-Benz museum a couple of years ago.

 

I took these pictures of 300slr 722/ 004 at the Goodwood Revival 2009:

 

p9ax.jpg

j9km.jpg


Edited by Mal9444, 14 February 2014 - 13:33.


#3 Alan Cox

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Posted 28 February 2014 - 18:02

It might be number 0704. I also heard it was one of the ones with the airbrake (big flap behind the driver) but can't remember because I last saw it oh, 50 years ago. I'd love to hear what they had to pay for it if they had to buy it back.

According to Michael Reidner's 'Mercedes-Benz W196 - The last of the Silver Arrows', the car 'donated' to the Henry Ford Museum was 000 01/54