In 1903, Wilhelm Maybach introduced the Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP as a modified and more comfortable version of his Mercedes 35 HP from 1901. Easy to operate, hence its name of simplex, with high performance and luxurious quality, this revolutionary car would become the blueprint of all automobiles to come. Now, an extremely rare 1903 Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP just sold at Gooding & Company's Amelia Island auction on March 1 for $12.1 million, setting a new record for an antique car. Antique cars are considered cars produced before 1939 (the start of World War II).
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Powered by a 9.25-liter F-head inline four-cylinder engine, which produced an ample 60 HP, this Mercedes was capable of reaching speeds topping 80 mph, making it the fastest production car in the world at the turn of the 20th century. The Mercedes-Simplex featured many of the mechanical and technical advances of its time, including a state-of-the-art chassis with a low center of gravity, a gated H-pattern four-speed gearbox, smooth scroll-type clutch, dual-chain drive, and honeycomb radiator. Between 1903 and 1905, the Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP dominated the world of racing, winning countless speed trials, hill climbs, and circuit races, even capturing first place in the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup in Ireland.
This car was owned by British businessman Alfred Harmsworth (1865-1922), also known as Viscount Northcliffe, who founded The Daily Mail. An automobile aficionado, Harmsworth was among the very first to place an order for the new 60 HP model and this 1903 Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP ‘Roi des Belges’ was one of his favorite cars, which he used to drive around Europe.
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His Mercedes-Simplex was fitted with the beautiful ‘Roi des Belges’ body it still wears today, built by the prestigious coachworking firm J. Rothschild et Fils. Roi es Belges, translating to King of the Belgians, was a car body shape used for luxury cars in the early 1900s. With its two rows of seating and rounded curves, it was suggestive of a tulip. The name comes from the Belgian King Leopold II, who commissioned a car with this body shape in 1901.
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This well-maintained car remained in the Harmsworth family's garages until the opening of the Beaulieu Motor Museum in the mid-1950s in Hampshire, England. For nearly seven decades, from 1956 to 2023, the Mercedes stood as a featured display at Beaulieu. This car is one of only four remaining examples in private ownership, with a fifth example, a Long-Wheelbase Omnibus, at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Furthermore, the Harmsworth Mercedes is one of only two such cars with original coachwork still intact and the only Mercedes 60 HP with a known racing pedigree. Now, after 121 years in Harmsworth family ownership, this record-breaking antique car will find a new garage.
The world's most expensive car ever auctioned is also a Mercedes: the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR "Uhlenhaut Coupe" from 1955 sold for €135 million (about $142.3 million) at RM Sotheby's in Stuttgart, Germany in May 2022.
