1935 Mercedes-Benz 500K Drophead Coupe

The merger of Daimler and Benz in the mid 1920s came at a time of acute difficulty for the German motor industry. Competition success such as Rudolf Caracciola’s 1930 European Hillclimb Championship in a supercharged SSK helped sales, which had risen to 6,000 in 1932 from a workforce reduced to 9,000 by the virtual closure of the Benz factories. The addition of smaller cars as commercial vehicles saw output rise to 25,000 in 1935, of which a mere 190 were the flagship 5-liter supercharged models.

The 500K was current between 1933 and 1935 and a few of the later chassis were fitted with the experimental 5.4-liter engine of the subsequent 540K, which pushed top speed to substantially more than 100 mph. The 500/540K were the natural successors to the famous supercharged sports models of the 1920s and early 1930s, but with more refinement and comfort.

The Mercedes build sheet indicates that this car was delivered new on the 20th March 1935 to...