A automobile that helped lay the groundwork for the corporate that we all know right now as Mercedes-Benz simply bought at public sale for $12,105,000. That is among the many highest costs ever paid for a automobile constructed earlier than 1930.

The automobile was a 1904 Mercedes-Simplex 60 HP just like the one proven right here, and was bought at a Gooding & Firm public sale coinciding with this previous weekend’s 2024 Amelia Island Concours d’Class. In accordance with the itemizing, the automobile is only one of 5 surviving examples from an authentic construct run of 102 examples. Till the public sale, the automobile was additionally in the identical household for an unimaginable 121 years.

The Simplex line of automobiles have been constructed by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft beginning in 1902, and the 60 HP model launched in 1903. The automobiles have been recognized for being massive and highly effective, making them fashionable with the rich.

The 60 HP was constructed by Daimler on behalf of Emil Jellinek, who was serving to to promote Daimler automobiles to prospects in France. He would promote the automobiles utilizing his daughter’s identify, Mercedes, because the model. Whereas it was thought for a few years that Mercedes was only a nickname of Jellinek’s daughter, who was also called Adriana, certainly one of her authentic passports has been discovered the place her identify is listed as Mercedes. The Mercedes-Benz model would observe in 1926, when Daimler merged with Karl Benz’s automobile firm.

Emil Jellinek and daughter Mercedes

For the 60 HP, Jellinek required that the automobile be rather more luxurious and extra highly effective than earlier Simplex fashions, as he supposed to make use of it to advertise the brand new idea of vacation highway journeys to rich industrialists in Europe. Daimler delivered by giving the automobile a 4-cylinder engine displacing 9.3 liters. This made the 60 HP a favourite amongst fans and early racers.

This explicit 60 HP was initially bought by British newspaper magnate and automotive aficionado Alfred C.W. Harmsworth, who based newspapers just like the Each day Mail and the Each day Mirror. He additionally helped promote automobiles by means of varied publications, together with the ebook “Motors And Motor-Driving,” which featured essays from the likes of motoring pioneer John Montagu and Rolls-Royce co-founder Charles Rolls.

Harmsworth additionally entered the automobile in varied races, together with the well-known Good Velocity Week on the French Riviera, the place it was ready within the garages behind Villa Mercedes, Jellinek’s non-public house in Good. Through the occasion, the automobile set a report for the standing mile.

Finally, Harmsworth retired the automobile from competitors and had it fitted with a physique by the French coachbuilder J. Rothschild et Fils. It was at the moment the automobile was fitted with its license plate. Plate A 740 is among the many earliest issued by the London Metropolis Council, which started issuing license plates in 1903 beginning with A 1.

Harmsworth handed away in 1922 and the automobile handed to his son Alfred, who was solely 12 on the time. It could proceed for use, largely for appearances at reveals, proper as much as the Sixties when, resulting from its historic significance, it was ready for long-term storage and placed on show on the Beaulieu Motor Museum in Hampshire, U.Okay.

Because the automobile was all the time in the identical household, it stays in a extremely authentic situation, and a completely documented historical past solely makes it extra fascinating amongst collectors.