Monterey Car Week 2026 is next month, and the first auction cars are already booked for their trip to California. Before this year's arrivals start rolling in, we're looking back at some of the cars we've shipped to and from the peninsula, and how they keep traveling long after the hammer falls. First up: a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 190 SLR that sold for $329,500 at RM Sotheby's Monterey in 2023.
The Speed Kit Mercedes Deleted From the Catalogue
In early 1954, New York dealer Max Hoffman pushed Mercedes-Benz to develop factory speed parts for the new 190 SL. The catalogue briefly listed a competition windscreen (SA 55056) and lightweight cut-down doors (SA 55039) aimed at club racers. By March 1955, when the first cars reached customers, both options had quietly vanished. The 190 SL was never properly homologated, so it couldn't legally race against full-blown sports cars.
Only a handful of these "Rennen" kits were ever produced, and fewer still were delivered. Mercedes kept the Sports Roadster configuration in 190 SL brochures until late 1956, teasing a car almost nobody could actually order. That's what makes a faithful 190 SLR so rare today: it's the race car Mercedes showed the world but never sold.
From Bruce Adams' Shop to Patrick Dempsey's Garage
This particular SLR was built circa 1995 by Bruce Adams of 190 SL Restorations, the recognized authority on the model, for longtime 190 SL Group President Tom Hamilton. Hamilton drove it the way it was meant to be driven: tours, vintage races, and shows, including the 2000 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.
From 2006 to 2008 the car belonged to actor and race car driver Patrick Dempsey, who featured it in a marketing campaign before the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center brokered it to The Iannelli Family Collection. The Classic Center then spent 2013 and 2014 on a comprehensive restoration that cost roughly $140,000. The result: Light Green (DB 274) paint, gabardine cloth seats of the type found in the 300 SL, a high-compression 1.9-liter four fed by twin Solex carburetors, racing windscreen, cut-down doors, roll hoop, alloy disc wheels, and a modern fuel cell. Since reemerging in 2014, it has claimed multiple Best of Show awards, most notably at Legends of the Autobahn in Pacific Grove.
Sold in Monterey, Then Back on the Move
At RM Sotheby's Monterey 2023, the SLR crossed the block as Lot 208 and sold for $329,500. That number is where most coverage ends. For us, it's where the work starts.
Cars like this don't retire into storage when they trade hands. They head to vintage track days, road rallies, and concours lawns, and their new owners are rarely in the same city, or the same country, as the auction tent. When this SLR found its new home, it moved through our warehouse: our team handled the documentation, the loading, and the securing, the same process we run for every car that sells during Car Week.
That's the pattern this series will keep coming back to. Every August, cars arrive in Monterey from Europe, Japan, and the Middle East to be shown and sold. A week later they scatter across the globe again, and the logistics behind that migration is a story almost nobody tells.
Bringing the Next One Home
The 190 SLR's story spans Stuttgart, Rochester, Amelia Island, Hollywood, and Pebble Beach, and it isn't finished. Somewhere down the road it will cross an ocean again, for a rally entry or a new owner, and a container will be waiting.
Buying or selling at the Monterey auctions this year? Contact West Coast Shipping's collector car specialists today for a personalized consultation and discover how simple getting your car to and from Car Week can be.
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