The World Cup is in full speed, so now’s the excellent time to consider acquiring this Mercedes-Benz as soon as possessed by Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona. The Hand of God wheeled this Signal Red 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC 5.0 available at Bonhams Paris public auction on February 2, 2023 with a projected price of EUR150,000-200,000 ($157,660– $210,214). Maradona led Argentina to victory at the 1986 World Cup as well as was named the FIFA Player of the 20th Century.
1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC 5.0 Maradona got the brand-new Mercedes as a present from a team of influential advocates while playing for his initial professional group, Club Atlético Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires. The 450SLC was presented to him by Formula 1 legend Juan Manuel Fangio, that owned the only official Mercedes dealer in Argentina at the time.
1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC 5.0 At 816 generated, the 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SLC was a homologation unique to qualify for the World Rally Championship. This four-seater grand tourer coupé has light-weight aluminum panels as well as an all-aluminum engine to maintain weight down. The 5.0-liter V8 engine generated a factory-rated 240 hp when new as well as pressed the 450SLC to a top speed of 209 km/h (130 mph). This instance has a console-shifted handbook transmission.
“With the World Cup match between Argentina as well as Mexico happening this weekend, we are delighted to reveal that we will be using this outstanding motor vehicle– and also item of sporting souvenirs– belonging to Maradona, who led his nationwide team to World Cup success in Mexico in 1986,” Philip Kantor, International Chairman, Bonhams Motoring, said. “We are sure that the SLC will score highly at the rostrum in Paris.”
After Maradona’s ownership, the Mercedes wound up secretive collections throughout Argentina as well as was after that imported to the U.S. It has 62,000 kilometres (38,000 miles) because brand-new and was expertly restored.
Nicknamed “Blue Buzz II,” a 1936 Delahaye 135 S Competition Court racing car that ran at Le Mans headlines the docket for Bonhams Les Grandes Marques à Monaco’ (aka The Monaco Sale) scheduled for April 23 as part of the Monaco Historic Grand Prix weekend.
The car was owned by Irish-American heiress Lucy Schell for her Ecurie Bleu racing team and made its debut as part of the car’s three-vehicle entry in the Three Hours of Marseille. The car gained its nickname because of its sky-blue color and the muffled buzzing sound of its engine, according to Bonhams.
The car ran in Grand Prix races at Donington, Pau and Commiges and in endurance events including the Belfast Tourist-Trophy before going to Le Mans in 1939, when it was rebodied with more aerodynamic coachwork by Chappes Frères.
Two subsequent facelifts followed, and the car was successful off the race track in various concours d’elegance. It will be offered at the auction with coachwork in the Chappes Frères style while retaining its original-period engine and chassis, which Bonhams says is a rarity for a racing car from the period.
The auction company expects the car to sell for €800,000 to €1.1 million ($950,000 to $1.3 million).
Simca Deho Barquette
Also on the docket are:
A 1949 Simca Deho Barquette with coachwork by Motto. The car was the creation of racer Jean Estager who converted a Simca Eight into a racer with a 1,086cc engine by Roger Deho and a hand-formed aluminum body by Motto of Milan. Estager sold the car in 1951 and it was entered at Le Mans but did not make the starting line. It later raced at various venues.
The car was rediscovered, stored away in a barn, early this century with its original chassis and engine. A restoration was done, except to the interior of the driver’s door, which was retained “as a reminder of how it was found.”
Pre-auction estimated value: €190,000 to €240,000 ($225,000 to $285,000).
1947 Cisitalia D46 monoposto
1947 Cisitalia D46 Monoposto, one of 14 produced and one of 12 known to survive. Bonhams reports that this car is believed to be the one driven in the Grand Prix de Bern by Harry Schell, the first American to start a Grand Prix race.
The car later was driven by a succession of Australians before it was purchased by Belgian racer Paul Swaelens, who had it for more than 40 years, selling it to the consignor in 2003. The car since has been fully restored, Bonhams noted.
Pre-auction estimate: €150,000 to €200,000 ($177,770 to $237,025).
1991 Isdera Imperator 108i
*1991 Isdera Imperator 108i, a supercar resulting from a Mercedes-Benz design experiment in the late 1970s by Eberhard Schulz, an engineer who formed Isdera to put the design into production and made 30 cars over a period of nine years.
The car has gullwing coachwork over a tubular-steel chassis and is powered by a 5.0-liter M119 V8 engine.
Pre-auction estimate: €500,000 to €700,000 ($592,560 to $829,580).
The Bonhams Monaco Sale is scheduled for April 23 at the Fairmont Monte-Carlo overlooking the hairpin turn on the Monaco Grand Prix circuit.
I have a saying about Isderas: They’re the best and I love them. So you can bet that when news emerged today that another example of the boutique German automaker’s few machines was headed for the auction block, an alarm bell started ringing in my head. I’m told this isn’t a normal aspect of human existence and not everyone has a built-in Isdera auction alert system, but nevertheless.
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Today’s Isdera, soon go to one very lucky buyer, is a 1991 Imperator 108i. The Imperator enjoyed a lengthy production run from 1984 to 1993, and during that time 30 cars rolled out of the company’s Leonberg, Germany factory. It was an evolution of a design first revealed as the Mercedes-Benz CW311 concept in 1978.
Photo: Bonhams
Initial Imperators employed Mercedes’ 5.0-liter M117 V8, producing just under 300 horsepower, but by the end of the car’s run that engine was replaced with a 6.0-liter AMG unit churning 390 HP. Although the listing on Bonhams website doesn’t state precisely which engine is in this Imperator — nor does it share any specifications at all — there is a photo of a 5.0-liter badge on the back, as well as copious shots of that engine.
The Imperator has always struck me as one of most unconventionally pretty sports cars of all time. In profile it’s certainly odd — there’s a chunky, elongated shape to it, almost like a stone that’s been chiseled away at, though some of its original form still remains. It shouldn’t work, but it does in that unapologetically ’80s way.
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Photo: Bonhams
From front to back, this car is rife with defining features rarely seen in supercars then or even now. The windshield and windows extend very far down, but seamlessly meld with the fiberglass body. The right-side exhaust pipes, escaping out two rectangular holes in the sill, tease the Imperator’s sporting purpose. And the slide-back headlight covers are a staple of the time you can’t help but love — though I personally prefer the exposed, circular lamps on older chassis. (Early models also had a periscope rear-view mirror mounted on the roof, rather than the conventional side-mounted ones seen on this example.)
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All these elements culminate in a car that is very technical and German, but also kind of dramatic and elegant, too — like the Ford GT90’s more suave relative. I wouldn’t lavish quite the same praise on the interior; it’s pretty rudimentary, like you’d expect of a small-numbers sports car builder in the ’80s, and it and could certainly use a good cleaning.
Photo: Bonhams
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The Imperator may not be quite as otherworldly as the one-of-one Commendatore 112i auctioned some months back, but it is core to the Isdera story. Isdera founder Eberhard Schulz conceived the CW311 as a then-modern 300SL successor for Mercedes, complete with gullwing doors, during his tenure at German coachbuilder BB Auto. When Mercedes wasn’t willing to produce the CW311, Schulz took matters into his own hands. And the world was better for it.
The Imperator is due to be auctioned in Monaco on April 23. Bonhams values it between $592,000 and $830,000.
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Photo: Bonhams
Photo: Bonhams
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Photo: Bonhams
Photo: Bonhams
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