Coys Auction - True Greats
Royal Horticultural Halls
Elverton St
Westminster
London SW1
Tuesday 7 December 2010
‘If Thor, the god of Thunder, owned a car it would be a Supercharged Mercedes.’ So much has been written over the years about these magnificent cars, but this statement is probably as accurate a description as any. Very few cars, before or since, have been so imposing, exclusive, charismatic and simply Wagnerian in conception. The supercharged Mercedes have long gone down in history as some of the world’s greatest cars.
Daimler Benz began development of the supercharged car for road and racing use at an early stage. Starting about 1919, they turned to supercharging in order to gain extra power from the slow-running engines of the period. That they succeeded is shown by a long line of cars from the 1922 Targa Florio winner to the W125 and W154 Grand Prix cars of the last years before the war, passing through the SSK and SSKL, before reaching the 500K and 540K, the last superch