Car of the Week: This 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500 K Could Fetch Up to $2 Million at Auction
Ninety years ago, Mercedes-Benz‘s 500 K Special Roadster was arguably the coolest car money could buy. With its flowing fenders, mile-long hood, muscular 5.1-liter supercharged straight-eight engine, and raked-back windscreen, the model was the dream machine of the period. Naturally, its rarity was part of its rarified appeal.
Between 1934 and 1936, Mercedes built just 342 examples of the 500 K. Of these, 29 were bodied as two-seat, open-top Special Roadsters. Fewer still—around five—were commissioned with a sweeping “long-tail” body. And just two of these featured the spare wheel hidden away under a flush-mounted metal cover, enhancing that iconic tail design.
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Now, a 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500 K inspired by that famous “hidden spare” duo, is currently on count-down in a high-profile Bring a Trailer online auction, which ends October 29. Bidding so far is just over $1 million.
“We restored—better still, resurrected—the car over seven long years with the sole intention of creating the most beautiful Special Roadster in the world,” says Craig Hopkins, the automobile’s Texas-based owner. “I like to think we achieved that.”
It was a long journey to get to that point. Initially delivered to a wealthy Dutch buyer in October of 1934, the car originally sported a four-seat Cabriolet B body. During World War II, the car was essentially destroyed, with all that remained being a twisted chassis and frame, as well as a badly damaged engine. According to Hopkins, what was left of the car was shipped stateside after the war by an American serviceman with grand plans to rebuild it. After sitting in storage for two decades, the chassis was purchased in the 1960s by Baron Johan Otto Raben-Levetzau, the owner of Denmark’s Aalholm Automobili Museum, and shipped back to Europe.
Another 20 years passed before the museum’s workshop was called on to bring the Mercedes back to life and create a display out of the car. Their cut-price solution: to build a replica body made of fiberglass, which they mounted on the still-twisted frame. Following the baron’s death, the museum closed its doors in 2007. Its 175-car collection was eventually auctioned off in a 2012 RM Sotheby’s sale that included the 500 K Special Roadster replica.
That’s where Craig Hopkins entered the picture. The author and leading authority on legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, had dreams of owning a 500 K. “I guess it started back in high school when I built a Monogram plastic kit of a similar Mercedes 540 K. Over 50 years later, I still have it,” he explains.
Yet searching for an original 500 K within his budget proved elusive. So when the replica-bodied car came up for sale, he bought it and shipped it to Jim Friswold, an Oregon-based restorer specializing in the marque. The restoration took seven years.
“It was still a chassis and engine, so I essentially did what an original 500 K buyer would do back in 1934 and decided which body style I was going to commission, says Hopkins. “I picked the 500 K Special Roadster ‘long tail’ because it’s regarded by many as the finest German prewar design ever created.”
Hopkins also turned to a renowned coachwork expert who specializes in the marque, Minnesota-based Cass Nawrocki, who’d rebuilt multiple original examples of the 500 K and 540 K using their body panels to create his own perfect templates. After Nawrocki meticulously hand-formed steel panels over white ash framework, the body was finished in period-correct dunkelbordeaux-color paint.
The car’s original 160 hp kompressor engine and four-speed manual transmission were totally rebuilt by Bearing Service Co., also in Oregon. The tan-leather interior, with burgundy piping, was the creation of upholsterer Ken Dickman, whose artisanship has been showcased in cars that have won at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
Yet for Hopkins, the truly standout part of the project was not aesthetic. “For me, the most intricate piece of work on the entire car was the radiator. It’s made up of around 10,000 tiny square tubes, each hand-welded together and mounted in the highly polished surround. There is no grille; what you see is the radiator itself. It’s a true work of art,” he explains.
After the car’s completion in 2018, Hopkins spent the following year showing off the car on the concours circuit. It won best-in-show awards at the Carmel Mission Classic, Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival, Park Place Luxury & Supercar Showcase, and the Keels & Wheels Concours d’Elegance. For the new buyer, Hopkins has a 190-page book and over 2,500 photos documenting the car’s history and every element of the seven-year restoration. There’s also a mountain of fully cataloged receipts.
Why sell now? Hopkins explains: “I’ve had a lot of fun with the car, going through the restoration process and showing it around the country. But I’ve decided it’s time to let someone else enjoy this very special car.”
Click below for more photos of this 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500 K.
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