Paul Russell and Company

Chassis No. 154151
Commission No. 231118
Engine No. 154151
Body No. 200399

This 540K Special Roadster was the Mercedes-Benz display car at the 1937 Berlin Motor Show. It was love at first sight for Jack Warner, and subsequently Warner Brothers Studios purchased it for his personal use. After preparation at the factory for delivery to the US, the installation of a MPH speedometer, and a "Made in Germany" identification plate, the Special Roadster was shipped to New York City. While there, Mitropa Motors showcased it in their print advertisements.

Jack Warner kept the car for over ten years. Dr. Sam Scher owned the car briefly before Connecticut veterinarian George Bitgood purchased it in 1949. The car was used very little by Dr. Bitgood before he put it away with the rest of his 540K collection. This elegant roadster stayed in his dirt-floored garage undisturbed for thirty-five years.

When we located this 540K Special Roadster for our clients we were most excited by its originality. After more than five decades of use, the odometer on it read less than 11,000 miles. It had never been apart, and so we were able to investigate and authentically reproduce the details and craftsmanship as created by the factory over sixty years ago.

One of the points of originality, which may be hard to appreciate amongst all the other details, is the upholstery material. We choose each vegetable-tanned top-grain leather hide individually, looking for the tannage and grain authentic to the period. The hides are surface dyed to match the original supplier's technique and color.

Of the twenty-six long-tail Special Roadsters built, this is one of only six bodied with the spare tire well fully covered. Over the years the spare tire cover had been misplaced and a new one needed to be fabricated, which entailed first making a wooden pattern and then a brass casting to replicate its elegant chrome plated brass handle.

In its debut at Pebble Beach in 1995, this car was awarded First in Class and the Mercedes-Benz Trophy. Two years later it was still winning, earning its third Best of Show at the Amelia Island Concours. Undoubtedly it is elegant and stylish, yet what many find surprising is the drivability of this car. To the uninformed, all cars from the pre-war era are thought to drive like trucks, but, in fact, Mercedes engineering was far ahead of its time. When these cars have had each component brought back to its original mechanical standards, as we have done on this one, you can experience Grand Touring at its best.

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“Thrilling, stirring, emotional, exciting, and stimulating would be appropriate words, but what I actually said after the blower cut in for the first time was: 'Fan - bloody - tastic!'”

Phil Llewellin
“Colossus of Roads”
Automobile Magazine