1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Roadster
This amazing car is the next generation from the 1930 Mercedes 710 SSK that was highlighted last week. Highly technologically advanced, the 500K was an expensive, exclusive, coachbuilt automobile typical of this era’s high-end cars.
Notice there are no doors? It’s also the only 500K with top and side hood louvers and cut-down fenders. With a 5-liter, roots-type supercharged straight-8 engine, fully independent, wishbone coil spring suspension, and servo-assisted hydraulic drum brakes, this car is believed to have been raced on European circuits before spending several decades behind the Iron Curtain. Just before WWII it appeared in the German movie Der Blaufuchs (The Blue Fox), but its Iron Curtain days in Estonia were much more humble, as for a time it wore a trailer hitch! The unique roadster body was the work of Mercedes own Sonderwagenbau coach shop in Sindelfingen, Germany.
The Mercedes 500K was the predecessor to the famous and also highly collectable 540K. Even back in those days, Mercedes models were numbered by the size of their engines, just as today the K still stands for Kompressor, or supercharged. The 500K was originally intended as a grand touring car, but the sporting roadster body on this one was the highest performing of the eight body styles offered. It was the first to offer the improved comfort of coil spring suspension. It even offered luxury convenience items such as electric windshield wipers, door locks and turn indicators. Of the 342 500Ks that were built, only 58 were Roadsters.
By the numbers, one can tell this was a very expensive, exclusive automobile. At once fast, nimble and comfortable with beautiful styling, these cars were among the most desirable of the 1930s. Stylistically, 1938 seems to have been the pinnacle of the Art Deco automotive period. However, this car didn’t lose much to its later 540K brother and more than held its own next to the Alfa Romeo and Figoni cars it competed with for the currency of the well-to-do.
Like a few other cars, this one has been shown before at Pebble, in 1991. Just prior to that, in 1987, it was brought to the United States where it received a complete restoration. Its second restoration was finished in July of 2015, just before it appeared again at Pebble Beach. This car ended up 3rd in Class in 2015 but did receive the Star of Excellence Award as the most significant Mercedes Benz. The car is owned by the Miyabi Collection in Honolulu.
