There was a time when the most expensive car in the world was a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, which sold for $70 million. Now, however, there’s a new world record. A very rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz SLR Coupe that had been kept in the German automaker’s collection was sold to a private owner, whose identity has not been revealed, for $142 million. That price makes it the most expensive car ever known to have been sold. Money from the sale will be used to establish the Mercedes-Benz Fund, a global scholarship fund. The Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Coupe was built with racing in mind, carefully engineered to be extremely light and quick on the track. Unfortunately, it never became part of the racing circuit, remaining only an admirable prototype. The car wasn’t, however, doomed to a sedentary life. Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the British engineer who created the 300 SLR Coupe, drove the car daily, often commuting from Stuttgart to Munich in a record-breaking one hour. The coupe that was just sold was one of only two in the world. The other coupe will remain in private ownership, though the collector has agreed to take it out on public display on special occasions.
