Legendary IMS museum cars will be auctioned

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum intends to auction off several of its cherished artifacts.

News 8 first reported about the auction on Tuesday .

IMS Museum will sell 11 cars from its collection, including a 1954 Mercedes Benz W196 Streamliner, driven by legends Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Mos and with an estimated worth up to $70 million, and the Le Mans-winning 1964 Ferrari 250LM.

Also in the collection is the 1954 Chevrolet Corvette SS Project XP64, which is the first to wear the SS badge.

Some other vehicles being auctioned include the 1907 Itala driven by Henri Fournier; the 1911 Laurin & Klement Racer featuring early active aerodynamics; and the 1909 Mercedes Brookland “Semmering Hill Climb” with a fully documented race history and record-setting performance.

Leaders at IMS say they consider some of the cars to be the world’s most significant to ever be sold.

Kara Kovert Pray, vice president of advancement at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, said, “There’s some areas in our collection that we would like to grow, things like woman representation, drivers of color and really some of the engineering and improvements in the most recent years.” Said

Kovert Pray says getting rid of some of these cars allows the museum — which is closed for renovations — to refine their collection and match what the museum’s mission is: a comprehensive history of the Indianapolis 500 and the speedway.

“These were some vehicles in our collection that while absolutely amazing cars, pieces of art don’t match that mission and the funds from this sale at the auction will allow us to not only grow our collection by adding to it but continue the care of what we have.”

Kovert Pray says the 1954 Mercedes will more than likely be auctioned later in 2024, and the rest of the cars will be sold either in one or two different auctions early in 2025.