RM Sotheby's Monterey sale rarely comes without a seven-figure headline, but even by that standard, the Owls Head Transportation Museum's 1904 Mercedes Simplex 40 HP stands out. Estimated at $5,000,000 to $6,000,000, it's being called one of the most significant Veteran-era automobiles to reach public sale in recent memory, and the paperwork backs that up.
Introduced in 1903, the 40 HP was the flagship of Mercedes' groundbreaking Simplex line, carrying a 6.7-liter T-head four-cylinder engine with valves worked by twin camshafts, a honeycomb radiator, and an industry-first four-speed gearbox with an H-pattern shift, all mounted to the first modern C-channel steel frame. It was the car that essentially defined the modern automobile layout that every serious competitor would copy for years afterward.
The car's paper trail traces back to an Emil Jellinek order placed in July 1903, completed in September 1904, and passed through a tangle of European and American commission numbers before landing with Adolphus Busch, co-founder of Anheuser-Busch, who had it serviced at his German summer estate in 1909. Decades later it turned up in the collection of George Waterman and Kirk Gibson, two of New England's most important early collectors, before passing to Thomas J. Watson Jr., the former IBM president, who had it restored in 1971. Watson went on to found the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Maine and donated the Mercedes there in 1977, where it has remained ever since.
What makes this particular car remarkable is how much of it is original: the aluminum fenders, floorboards, panels, and even the make-or-break ignition system are all factory-original, a rarity for a 120-year-old automobile that has actually been driven. The Mercedes-Benz Classic Center recently inspected the car in person, one of only a handful of times its experts have examined a vintage Mercedes outside Germany, and the Royal Automobile Club has invited it to participate in the 2026 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Owls Head museum's STEM education programs. You can view the full catalog and register to bid over at RM Sotheby's.
