Delivered new to Establech in Düsseldorf, a company from the Flick-Group
With its current owner for over 30 years!
One of only 141 Roadsters built!

Cary Grant owned one, so did Bing Crosby and Gary Cooper, Clark Gable even called it its dearest – the Mercedes-Benz 300 S, a car built by its inventors to invoke the glory of their own past and to show the world one thing: that Stuttgart could still build the best cars.

It was October 1951 in Paris, at the Salon de l’Automobile, that Mercedes-Benz presented its new flagship to a stunned audience. Drawn by Hermann Ahrens, built on the shortened chassis of the 300 limousine presented half a year earlier in Frankfurt, fired by 150 horses out of three liters and six cylinders, and loaded with all the elegance on opulence the world had to offer. The Mercedes-Benz 300 S was more than a surprise anattendue, it was an exclamation mark. Yes, they could!

Some might have been bigger, others stronger, but the 300 S outshined each and every one of them, even in the fully motorized new world. No other car had this class – or in fact its price, which was almost twice the fanciest Cadillac. Whether as a Coupé, or a Cabriolet A with a fully lined convertible top, or as a sleek Roadster with a fully disappearing roof, the price was always the same: 34.500 German Marks. The press called it a car for the “the world’s elite”, a nicely put euphemism for out of this world.

In the old world resurrecting from the ashes, with a Volkswagen, a car that most could only dream of, having a similar price tag, less one nil, the 300 S must have appeared like a starship from outer space. But a stiffening breeze of Wirtschaftswunder made it also find some homes on this side of the pond, rather industry tycoons’ than movie stars’ homes, though.

560 cars left the factory in three years, the fewest as chic roadsters, with only 141 specimens built. In 1955 the 300 S was upgraded with fuel injection, dry-sump lubrication, even more chrome and new low-pivot independent rear suspension. The price was increased by half a Volkswagen, which put it two full Volkswagen above its famous gull-winged stable mate that Mercedes had meanwhile released from the race tracks into road traffic. This further reduced the already homeopathic sales numbers, and another three years later, in 1958, production of the 300 S ceased.

This 300 S Roadster, which will go on sale in Dorotheum’s upcoming classic car auction in June, was delivered in early 1953 to Düsseldorf to “Establech Gesellschaft für Eisen, Stahl und Blecherzeugniss mbH”, a subsidiary company of Bavaria’s “Eisenwerkgesellschaft Maximilianshütte”, which again was owned by Friedrich Flick. Not quite the classic company car, lacking two doors and a roof, the question is raised, whether Friedrich Flick, who was a shareholder of Daimler Benz at that time, spoiled one of his subsidiaries with the then most expensive car in the world, or whether he used it himself having his residence and headquarter nearby. Who in fact was rolling down fancy Königsallee, decide for yourself.

In 1982 the consignor, a merchant from Hamburg, registered the car in his name. Since then he has enjoyed many summers with the roadster at his French residence. After a few years together he had the car, that had received a new “official” (with tag) heart in its early days, restored and today, another 20 years later, time has come to pass it on to a new loving caretaker. Today the 300 S still shines with all its elegance and unrivaled glamour, with a hint of lovely patina, which gives it the extra portion of charm, that freshly restored examples are often so sadly missing.

In the 65 years since presentation of the 300 S, the world has become a different one, but one thing has not changed: it still amazes the passerby and makes them turn their heads no matter where it goes. The 300 S is quintessential elegance, it always has and will always be. Or as American Road & Track Magazine put it beautifully to the point in 1953: “Wherever the Mercedes-Benz 300 S has been seen, since its first appearance at the Paris Salon in the autumn of 1951, it has caused a quiet riot of enthusiasm, with its low, sleek lines and its attitude of ‘going’ even when standing still.”

VIN: 18801200092/53, Milage: 71.867 km (read from odometer), Displacement: 2.996 ccm/R6, Gearbox: 4-speed, Color: black/brown (leather), Power: 150 HP, Papers: German vehicle registration papers