Rare, Celebrity-owned Mercedes 500E W124 Heads to Auction
When legendary German automakers Mercedes and Porsche build a car together, you know it’s going to be good.
On its own merit, the W124-gen Mercedes 500E is special enough. The supremely luxurious, solid-as-a-tank performance machine represented the pinnacle of Mercedes engineering, in fact. But this particular example is even more special than your “average” 500E. For starters, it’s just one of 29 left-hand drive models produced for U.K. consumption. It was owned not once, but twice, by British actor and comedian Roland “Mr. Bean” Atkinson. And now, it’s up for grabs at Classic Car Auctions’ May 25th sale.
According to the listing, Atkinson (of Mr. Bean fame) purchased this special Mercedes from the original owner and kept it for four years. But after selling it to the third owner, he wound up buying the car again 23 years later. Of course, we can hardly blame him for his infatuation. The 500E was a special car, capable of doing 0-62 in 5.5 seconds and reaching 161 mph. For the early ’90s, that was blazing fast for any vehicle. Especially a luxurious four-door sedan.
But that’s to be expected from a Mercedes that combines obsessive engineering with Porsche’s performance genius. Mercedes commissioned Porsche to help redesign the W124’s chassis so that it could be fitted with this car’s smoking hot 5.0-liter V8. Porsche also hand-assembled the cars in unison with Mercedes, a process that took a full 18 days per car. And the result was something truly special.
Dubbed the “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” the Mercedes 500E was, and still is, one of the greatest sleeper cars ever produced. And today, it’s highly coveted for those attributes. And even though this one’s racked up nearly 200,000 miles, its impeccable condition is just further proof that when two legendary Germans get together to build a car, you know it’s going to be good.
Photos: Classic Car Auctions
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