Vintage Mercedes is auctioned for $7.4m

September 4, 2004; The Gulf Weekly reported that a vintage Mercedes has been sold for $7.42 million (BD2.8m), making it the second most expensive automobile in history, British auctioneers Bonhams said yesterday. Powered by a 7.1-litre engine, the SSK model was hailed as the fastest racing car in the world when it was built in 1929. But British collector George Milligen was able to buy it for a mere 400 pounds in 1941, when demand for German goods was at a low during the Second World War. Milligen died in May, aged 94, and most of his 38-car collection went under the hammer on Friday night. High as it was the price paid for the Mercedes, when inflation is taken into account, came nowhere near the 5.5 million pounds (BD3.7m) paid at another Bonhams auction in 1987 for a Bugatti Royale, built in 1931.