New car news

24 January 2012 - 18:00

1955 Mercedes SL sells for $4.4m

Bankers! Theo Paphitis! Lord Sir Alan! DUMP GOLD! BUY 1955 MERCEDES SL LIGHTWEIGHTS!

Yep, it's official*. 1955 lightweight, alloy-bodied Mercedes-Benz SLs are a better investment than gold. In June 2011, one of the 29 road racers sold for $2.5m ($2.4m) through Coys auction house; this weekend, an identical car sold for $4.62m ($4.4m) after commission at Gooding & Company's American sale in Scottsdale, Arizona.

See more pics of the 1955 Mercedes-Benz SL

According to maths, that's an 84.8 per cent increase. Gold, on the other hand, has risen just 3.9 per cent. That's a return of Lots Less. And you don't get to drive around in a Mercedes SL Gullwing for a bit.

Which would be a terrible shame. Based loosely on MB's circa-1952 racer, the 300SL was the fastest production car of its day. It got a tubular spaceframe chassis and, in all-aluminium-panel flavour, was the sportiest and lightweightiest of the SL range - it had 80kg less mass than the standard effort.

This or two Veyrons, TopGear.comniverse? Now read about the new SL

*Not in any way official.