--- title: Mercedes-Benz 500 K · HICONIUM description: "Three hundred and forty-two supercharged straight-eight chassis in three years, each bodied to order by Sindelfingen's Sonderwagenbau — the 500 K was the grandest German car of its age, and The Autocar called the open car 'a master car, for the very few'. The Spezial-Roadster on top of the range cost as much as a house." canonical_url: https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/500-k image: https://hiconium.com/og/vehicle/mercedesbenz/500-k.png --- > HICONIUM · Index: https://hiconium.com/llms.txt · Every page: append `.md` or send `Accept: text/markdown`. > Path: [Home](https://hiconium.com/) › [Vehicles](https://hiconium.com/vehicles) › [Mercedesbenz](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz) › Mercedes-Benz 500 K > On this page: [The price and the proof](#the-price-and-the-proof) · [The grandest expression of the supercharged era](#the-grandest-expression-of-the-supercharged-era) · [Technical specifications](#technical-specifications) · [Buying interest, silently.](#buying-interest-silently) · [Open a file on yours.](#open-a-file-on-yours) · [The people behind the car](#the-people-behind-the-car) ![A midnight-blue Mercedes-Benz 500 K Spezial-Roadster with chrome exhaust pipes, front three-quarter view on a deep midnight-blue field in soft evening light](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/cars/mercedesbenz-500-k/hero-wide-2560.jpg.w1920.q90.webp) Market value · road $850K–$5.9M Typical $3.4M · 5 sales · -13% vs ’23–’24 $723K $6.3M [Open Market & Price](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/500-k#market) # 500 K The master car Three hundred and forty-two supercharged straight-eight chassis in three years, each bodied to order by Sindelfingen's Sonderwagenbau — the 500 K was the grandest German car of its age, and The Autocar called the open car 'a master car, for the very few'. The Spezial-Roadster on top of the range cost as much as a house. [View details](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/500-k#overview) ![A midnight-blue Mercedes-Benz 500 K Spezial-Roadster with chrome exhaust pipes, front three-quarter view on a deep midnight-blue field in soft evening light](https://hiconium.com/_derived/images/cars/mercedesbenz-500-k/hero-mobile-2160.jpg.w3840.q90.webp) Market value · road $850K–$5.9M Typical $3.4M · 5 sales · -13% vs ’23–’24 $723K $6.3M [Open Market & Price](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/500-k#market) Market value · road $850K–$5.9M Typical $3.4M · 5 sales · -13% vs ’23–’24 $723K $6.3M ’11 ’26 Market history · in the terminal [Open Market & Price](https://hiconium.com/vehicles/mercedesbenz/500-k#market) Power 100 / 160 PS (M 24 I straight-eight · blower on kickdown) Built 342 (factory count · Bonhams tallies 354) Top speed 160 km/h (factory · Bonhams quotes near 177) Gearbox Schnellgang (clutchless overdrive fourth) Price then RM 28'000 (Spezial-Roadster — a prime house in town) Record $5.34M (Spezial-Roadster · Monterey 2025) Market & Price ## The price and the proof A terminal for one car: the model curve over the documented record, the benchmarks it is measured against, and the instruments that read it. Records: 8 documented road sales on file · 2011–2026; estimate band $850K–$5.9M · good road cars. recorded sale prices · mixed hammer and premium-inclusive basis. HCN:500K Live model $2'239'420 -56.6% · 12M 1Y 5Y 10Y MAX +2Y S&P 500 Gold Crises log lin Model curve · anchored to 7 documented sales · benchmarks rebased at window start model v1 · seed mercedesbenz-500-k · not investment advice The readouts · model figures against the benchmarks 7 documented anchors · last sale 6 mo ago Compound annual growth | Window | This car* | S&P 500 | Gold | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1Y | -56.6% | +18.8% | +21.9% | | 5Y | -2.9% | +11.4% | +17.6% | | 10Y | +1.9% | +13.3% | +11.8% | *Modeled price CAGR · S&P is a price index, no dividends Deepest drawdown · model window This car* -83.7% Sep 2016 → Jan 2026 · not recovered S&P 500 -20.3% Dec 2021 → Oct 2022 · recovered Dec 2023 Gold -39.3% Sep 2011 → Dec 2015 · recovered Jul 2020 Forecast ladder · model quantiles | Horizon | P10 | P50 | P90 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | +6M | $1.8M | $2.2M | $2.7M | | +12M | $1.7M | $2.2M | $2.9M | | +24M | $1.5M | $2.2M | $3.2M | Median path with the 10th and 90th percentile · not investment advice Transaction ledger · documented sales Mixed price basis · not estimates All Road LM · Comp Newest first List Distribution Search venue or lot 8 of 8 recorded sales · shown in USD · recorded currency in each record - 2026 · 08 Mecum · Monterey · incl. buyer's premium Road $1.3M - 2026 · 01 Bonhams · Paris · incl. buyer's premium Road $938K - 2025 · 08 RM Sotheby's · Monterey · incl. buyer's premium Road $5.3M - 2024 · 10 RM Sotheby's · Los Angeles · incl. buyer's premium Road $4.1M - 2023 · 08 RM Sotheby's · Monterey · incl. buyer's premium Road $1.7M - 2016 · 09 Bonhams · Château de Chantilly · incl. buyer's premium Road $5.8M - 2016 · 08 RM Sotheby's · Monterey · incl. buyer's premium Road $1.9M - 2011 · 08 RM Sotheby's · Monterey · incl. buyer's premium Road $3.8M Authenticity is the entire game: workshops have rebodied saloons into 'Special Roadsters' since the 1950s, and those cars trade at $1.2–2.0 million against $5 million-plus for Sindelfingen originals. Mercedes-Benz Classic authenticates. The 2026 season showed softness — a Roadster hammered 54 per cent below its low estimate at Mecum Monterey. Price range · road · open Confidence · low This is a thin market — about ten original 500 K sales in five years, and years can pass between Spezial-Roadsters. Closed coupés open the band under a million dollars, Normal Roadsters and open tourers trade at $1.2–1.7 million, Cabriolet A at $1.7–3.0 million, and original Spezial-Roadsters occupy the ceiling alone. Floor $850K Typical $3.4M Ceiling $5.9M Estimate band for good road cars. 5 documented sales since 2019 plotted below. $697K $850K $3.4M $5.9M $6.4M Hover the spectrum to read a value, or a dot for the sale behind it. Band and axis shown in USD. Sale positions use indicative fixed-rate conversion to USD; sale readouts retain recorded currencies. Figures in USD for original factory-bodied 500 K cars. The 540 K — including the famous $9.68M and $11.77M Spezial-Roadster results — is a separate model and excluded. Rebodied cars and replicas are separate sub-markets. The wider market · Mercedes-Benz at auction · median per year · modeled between anchors 1,779 lots · 2003–2026 · exact yearly anchors · modeled line [Explore all 40,882 results](https://hiconium.com/market#terminal) Instrument calibration for this file is in progress — the terminal above reads the documented record directly. RM Sotheby's, Bonhams and Mecum figures include buyer's premium. Guide figures are date-stamped snapshots (Hagerty and classic.com, August 2026), not appraisals. Production prints as 342 (factory) or 354 (Bonhams year-split) — prefer the factory figure. Overview ## The grandest expression of the supercharged era The Type 380 of 1933 was judged underpowered almost on arrival — Sindelfingen's coachwork had grown heavier than its blown eight could carry with dignity. Development of a five-litre successor began in January 1933, before the 380 had even reached the Berlin show. A year later the 500 K appeared at the 1934 Berlin exhibition as a single streamlined Autobahn-Kurier, and the sales force called it the highlight of the show. Hans Nibel, whose all-independent chassis underpinned it, died of a heart attack that November; Max Sailer took over the design office on the first day of 1935. The formula was aristocratic: a pressed-steel frame with coil-sprung independent suspension at both ends, hydraulic servo brakes, 12-volt electrics — and the M 24 straight-eight whose Roots compressor engaged only at kickdown, lifting 100 PS to 160. Untertürkheim built 342 chassis in three years; nearly all crossed to Sindelfingen, where Hermann Ahrens's Sonderwagenbau bodied them to order in eight catalogued styles. The bare chassis cost RM 15'500, most bodies RM 22'000, and Friedrich Geiger's Spezial-Roadster rose from RM 26'000 to 28'000 — house money, spent on a car. In autumn 1936 the 5.4-litre 540 K took over, and the compact '500 K' label only became common once a sibling needed distinguishing. The market has since sorted the family with brutal clarity: original Sindelfingen cars trade from under a million dollars for closed coupés to $5.3 million and beyond for the seven surviving short-tail Spezial-Roadsters, while postwar rebodies and replicas — a cottage industry since the 1950s — trade at a permanent discount that only factory authentication resolves. ### Power by kickdown The Roots blower does not run continuously: press the accelerator past full throttle and a clutch pack engages the compressor, closes the atmospheric intake and lifts the eight from 100 to 160 PS. ### A body shop for the very few Wilhelm Haspel created the Sindelfingen Sonderwagenbau in 1932 and hired Hermann Ahrens from Horch to run it — every 500 K body was built to order, price list or not. ### One car at the Berlin show The 500 K debuted at the Berlin motor show in March 1934 as a single streamlined Autobahn-Kurier — sales circulars called it the 'Clou der Ausstellung', the highlight of the show. ### Two ceilings, two currencies The 500 K record is genuinely double-booked: €5.29 million at Bonhams Chantilly in 2016 for the Berlin-show Prym roadster, and $5.34 million at RM Monterey in 2025 for an ex-Perkins Spezial-Roadster. Built 342 chassis, 1934–36 Coachwork Sindelfingen Sonderwagenbau, to order Survivors 7 original short-tail Spezial-Roadsters Engineering Hans Nibel † 1934 · Max Sailer Styling Hermann Ahrens · Friedrich Geiger Reference ## Technical specifications ### The Kompressor eight Engine M 24 I straight-eight, 5'018 cc updraught twin carburettor with a switchable Roots blower upstream — floor the throttle and a clutch pack engages the compressor; it is not continuously blown Output 100 PS unblown, 160 PS at 3'400 rpm any 180-hp print on a 500 K lot is the later 540 K rating leaking in Gearbox 4-speed with Schnellgang fourth a clutchless overdrive top gear — the true five-speed belongs to the 1939 540 K Performance 160 km/h factory 27 litres per 100 km, a 110-litre tank; The Autocar in 1936 measured its awe rather than its numbers ### Chassis and coachwork Suspension All-independent, coils all round Nibel's double wishbones ahead, double-coil swing axle behind — inherited from the Type 380 and patented by Daimler-Benz Brakes Hydraulic, vacuum servo roughly 370-mm drums, 12-volt electrics, central lubrication — sold as an owner-driver's car for the new Autobahn Chassis 3'290-mm wheelbase, 2'300 kg kerb short 2'980-mm frame under some bodies; the 2'700-kg figure often quoted is gross weight, not kerb Bodies Eight catalogued styles, built to order Cabriolet A/B/C, Tourenwagen, coupés, roadsters and the streamlined Autobahn-Kurier — the Spezial-Roadster the most expensive of all The records 0 Chassis built factory figure · Bonhams tallies 354 0 Cabriolet A the 500 K-only body count 0 Short-tail survivors original first-series Spezial-Roadsters 0$ Auction record Monterey 2025 · €5.29M at Chantilly 2016 HICON BID ## Buying interest, silently. A HICON Bid is a confidential expression of buying interest on the Mercedes-Benz 500 K file — never public, never shown to other members. It is not a binding purchase, and HICONIUM holds no funds. [Sign in](https://hiconium.com/sign-in) HICON Bids are a member instrument. Sign in to place one. The vault ## Open a file on yours. You keep one? The record starts in your garage — identity, papers, photography, and the market evidence this file already carries, bound to your chassis. [Sign in to open a file](https://hiconium.com/sign-in) [How membership works](https://hiconium.com/membership) The hands ## The people behind the car The people whose work shaped the Mercedes-Benz 500 K. No free period portrait on record #### Hans Nibel Technical director Porsche's successor from 1929; the 380's all-independent coil-sprung chassis that the 500 K inherited is his. Died at Stuttgart station in November 1934, in the car's first production year. No free period portrait on record #### Max Sailer Head of design office from 1935 The former works driver oversaw the house through the 540 K changeover and the supercharged era's maturity. No free period portrait on record #### Hermann Ahrens Head of Sonderwagenbau Hired from Horch in 1932 by plant director Wilhelm Haspel to run the special-body shop; every 380, 500 K, 540 K and Großer Mercedes body was built under his direction. No free period portrait on record #### [Friedrich Geiger](https://hiconium.com/people/friedrich-geiger) Spezial-Roadster stylist Drew the most expensive 500 K body as a young man on Ahrens's team — twenty years later he shaped the 300 SL. No free period portrait on record #### Rudolf Caracciola Works driver His one-off closed Special Coupé, chassis 113718, surfaced unrestored in the Rudi Klein junkyard collection and brought $4.13 million in 2024.