Vanderbilt Cup Races

Can I please grumble and gripe about something here on our blog for a moment? For years I was able to attend the Greenwich Concours at a fair price. For the first couple of years it was $5.00 for admission and they handed out box lunches to all attendees. The ticket price went up over the years but was still doable. Now the auction guys have taken over and it cost $75 to get in or $150 with my wife!!! No I didn’t go this time (went to Old Westbury gardens instead) The concours tickets around the country are outrageous. $75 at Greenwich, $150 at Amelia Island, $425 at Pebble Beach, but at Pebble if you don’t buy till August it is $525!!!!
I know some of this money goes to charity BUT really why are excluding your average income car guy or like me a fixed income retiree? Is this troubling anyone else?

From The Motor Parkway House in Central Park (Bethpage) Updated: June 25, 2014

I tried to find more info about the Motor Parkway House and Mathias Romscho. Below are articles - In 1941, he’s being awarded with a 25 year badge as a member & commissioner of the Bethpage Fire Department, the shorter of the 2 in the photo. He passed away in January 1949.

From The Motor Parkway House in Central Park (Bethpage) Updated: June 25, 2014

Additional detail pertaining to the Vanderbilt Cup Race movie shown at the Cincinnati Auto Show held January, 1907.  I’m assuming the movie was about the 1906 race since the article was from the January, 1907 edition of “The Spokesman and Harness World” magazine.

From Kleiner's Korner: How The Entertainment Business Brought The Motor Parkway and the Vanderbilt Cup Races to the Public (Part 1)

The auto is the Mercedes 300 SLR entered in the 1955 Le Mans race driven by Sterling Moss and Juan Fangio. (DNF)                                                  The hauler is the Mercedes Renntransporter nicknamed “The Blue Wonder”  It was scrapped in the late 1960’s, understand it was recently rebuilt;  It was said to have a top speed in excess of 100 MPH.  It’s primary purpose was to get back and forth to the race circuits very quickly. While it appears to be a tractor trailer combo, it is not. An unusual feature of the hauler is how far out the cab extends from the front wheels.

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

Barney Oldfield’s private shipping car in which he transported his automobiles and promoted Firestone tires.  The arrow points to Oldfield and his wife. 
From “The Spokesman and Harness World” of July, 1910.

From Mystery Foto #28 Solved: Barney Oldfield in the 1909 Christie Racer which established the 102.6 mph Indy lap record in 1916

That’s a 1955 Mercedes Benz 300-SLR. I believe it was originally built to compete in Formula-1 racing. It is significant today because a 1956 SLR Coupe recently sold for $142 million dollars, making it the most expensive car in the world. The hauler is a 1955 Mercedes Benz Renntransporter built by Mercedes to transport its racers from venue to venue as quickly as possible. It was nicknamed “The Blue Wonder” and was considered the fastest racing car hauler in the world. After Mercedes withdrew from racing, it was ultimately sent to the crusher in 1967. An exact replica was built in 2001 by Mercedes and now resides in the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

LeMans 55 crash

Leno probably

even clones are ridiculous prices

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

P.S.
The hauler is in the M-B museum, although used for traveling exhibits, along with the other Uhlenhaut Coupe..

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

The 1955 M-B 300 SLR roadster was built to compete for the 1955 World Sports Car Championship. One of the roadsters was involved in the tragic LeMans disaster in 1955. Daimler-Benz made two road-legal 300 SLR coupés, known today as Uhlenhaut Coupés, named for Rudolf Uhlenhaut, the head of M-B racing, and used by him as personal transport. One of the two surviving Uhlenhaut Coupes recently sold for $142,000,000!
The hauler is the 1954-55 M-B Renntransporter, known as Das blaue Wunder. It could make it’s way down the Autobahn, fully loaded, at 130+ mph, powered by what was, essentially, the same motor as that of the 300 SLR it carried.

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300-SLR (Sport Light Racing) racer.  Built to race in the 1955 World Sportscar Championship. 

The coupe version of the 300-SLR was sold on May 5 at a public auction in Germany for $142 million breaking the record of vehicles sold at public auction. 

The hauler is the Mercedes Renntransporter, nicknamed the “Silver Arrow Rapid Deployment Team” and prompted as “The Fastest Racing Car Hauler in the World”.  Acted as transporter and mobile workshop during racing events. 

History: (from “Automotive Evolution.com”)
Built in 1954 as Germany was coming out of its recession after WWII.  Aside from racing events, at the end of 1955 it was part of a tour around America to be featured in a number of car shows.

“Thanks to its gathered fame, the original intention was for it to be placed in the old Mercedes-Benz Museum while carrying a 300 SLR, but because the combined weight of the two cars would have exceeded the load-bearing capacity of the building’s floor, the idea was dropped.

After a small stint of doing special jobs which helped the road-testing of prototype cars, the world’s fastest racing car transporter was finally scrapped in December 1967. Since there weren’t any plans available for the vehicle’s construction, its legend remained forgotten until 1993, when Mercedes-Benz Classics decided to rebuild it based on all the classic photos and old information that could be gathered. Expert builders spent almost 6000 hours of work and after seven long years the Renntransporter was finally rebuilt from scratch.

Today:  The rebuilt hauler is in the Mercedes-Benz Museum, hauling a 300 SLR for eternity.

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

Yes Frank, I guess the driver could have been thrown in the water as shown in the article.  But still wondering about which car it is - Mercedes or a De Dietrich.

From Kleiner's Korner: Three Accidents Involving Motor Parkway Celebrities

1954/55 Mercedes hauler is Blue. Used to haul the #00 SLR team cars. After the 1955 LeMans wreck Mercedes gave this pair to the Ford Museum. Some years later when the Mercedes Factory Museum got going they asked for the truck back, I saw it a number of times at the Sports Car Review show in the Ford Museum

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

Art, NEAR Lake Success. That’s water in the background

From Kleiner's Korner: Three Accidents Involving Motor Parkway Celebrities

Hi all
  Thought you lost me. Always keeping up with you. I’m somewhat answering this mystery., very easy, give away. The 2.vehicles are Mercedes’~Benz, that’s it.
                                                              Stay safe, be well. Ted

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

Here is a picture from Willie K.‘s own photography albums (courtesy of the Vanderbilt Museum) showing the accident I had described above at Deepdale in Dec., 1906.  However as Willie K. notes, the car was a DeDietrich.  The articles above indicate it as a Mercedes.  Possibly this photo is a different accident as the car does not appear to have gone into Lake Success while the above articles state it did.  What do you think?

From Kleiner's Korner: Three Accidents Involving Motor Parkway Celebrities

The car is a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. It was built to compete with Ferrari on the sports-car racing circuit. A coupe version of this car recently sold for $143M at auction, making it the most expensive car ever sold.

The hauler is a 1955 Mercedes-Benz transporter, nicknamed the “Blue Wonder.” It was used throughout the ‘55 racing season, but M-B withdrew from competition at the end of the season due to the catastrophic crash at Le Mans that destroyed a 300 SLR and killed its driver.

The original Blue Wonder was scrapped in 1967, but M-B built a replica in 1993. It is currently on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum. Jay Leno owns another replica built by a Swedish enthusiast.

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

I was the one who took that painting down many years ago when it was getting renovated
I think senator Bernstein was the client

From Update: The Hunt for the "Godfather" Train Painting is Over

I meant to send a photo of the 300SLR Uhlenhaut coupe in my earlier response. Here It Is.

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

Mystery Foto #23…the race car on the hauler is a 1955 Mercedes 300SLR. This and a few others like it were built for the World Sports Car Championship held back in the mid 20th century. The 300SLR is significant because a sister car to the one shown here, the 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe sold at auction recently for $145 million dollars (135 Million Euros) making it the most expensive car ever sold at auction.
The ultra cool hauler is a 1950 Mercedes know as the Blue Wonder. The company only built one and it was destroyed back in1967. However, Mercedes did commission a recreation at a cost of over $2,000,000 which is at the factory museum in Stuttgart.
As a footnote, I was attending the 12 hours of Sebring back in 1959??? and in the days before the race as cars and people gathered at the track,  John Fitch was there with one of the Uhlenhaut coupes. It was not entered in the race but simply there to show it off. So I did see it person, Wow, what an amazing car!!!

From Mystery Friday Foto #23 Solved: A 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR W196S on top of the Mercedes-Benz "Blue Wonder" hauler

Very interesting to this baseball fan.

From Kleiner's Korner: Baseball Great Ty Cobb's Connection to the Vanderbilt Cup Race