Silver Arrow Special

A shin shining beacon of beauty for all, and a deli delight for those who could afford it

THE MOS MOST expensive Mercedes-benz model you can buy right now is the S65 AMG Cabriolet, an imposingly sized, drop-top grand tourer with a force-fedfor engine and opulent interior. Few rivals can match its combinat combination of elegance, aggression, grace and pace. Rewind a mere 80 years and you’d be describing another MercedesBenz, the 540K, in its four-seater cabriolet or even more exclusive Special Roadster guise. Known internally as the W24, the 540K – introduced in 1936 at th the Paris motor show – had at least a spiritual connection to the pre-depre pre-depression SSK (‘Super Sport Kurz’) racer, whose supercharged, SOHC inin-line six-cylinder engine was developed by Ferdinand Porsche. About h half the 40 SSKS built were delivered as racing cars; the remainde remainder would signal a growing market for exclusive sports-touring road mod models. These began to take shape in the 380 (1932) that introduced a 3.8-litr 3.8-litre, straight-eight OHV engine – many fitted with a kompressor (superch (supercharger) – and the company’s first all-independent suspension. The e evolution of that, in turn, was the 5.0-litre 500K (1934-36), whose genuin genuine 100mph performance and opulent styling soon found its full vo voice in the bigger-engined 540K. Of the body styles fitted, the majo majority were designed by in-house maestro Hermann Ahrens and buil built by the company’s own Sindelfingen coachworks. And the ultimateulti indulgence was the 540K Special Roadster. ItI had everything: colossal size (at 5.3m long), imposing power (135kw(13 being spectacular stuff in a production model), yet achinglyach elegant lines. Even among those Germans who couldn’t affordaff it – which was all but a few hundred of them – the 540K waswa symbolic of a nation whose miraculous economic recovery fromfro WW1 rode, to a considerable extent, on the investment in its autobahns,au its automotive industry and its engineering superiority in general. To this day, it is regarded as one of the most beautiful carsca of all time. For Mercedes-benz the 540K was no less significant in cementingce the company’s recovery from the Depression years: in 1932,19 its total automotive production was just 6000 units, but by 193519 this had escalated to more than 15,000. By 1939, prior to the outbreakou of war, it was on track to produce 30,000 vehicles. OfO the 540K series, Mercedes-benz built just 419 examples, whichwhic were variously delivered as bare chassis, two-door sedans, roadstersroadster and a majority in cabriolets. It’s believed that only 25 were fitted withwit Special Roadster coachwork. The surviving examples now fetch in thet region of US$10-$12M.