Description
1938 Mercedes-Benz 230 Coupe with Custom Coachwork by Baur
This 1938 Mercedes-Benz 230 Coupe with Custom Coachwork by Baur represents a coachbuilt Mercedes-Benz of quite unusual character. This car ably broaches the pre-war and post-war eras, and is a wonderful memento of German craftsmanship from both. It's largely intact but it appears to have been repowered at some point with a 1954 Mercedes 220 engine. According to its original build sheet, Mercedes-Benz 230 chassis number 406732 was originally mounted with a sedan body and delivered in late 1938 via the Mercedes-Benz dealer in Zürich, Switzerland to a buyer in Dortmund, Germany. In the early post-war era, likely between 1949 and 1951, the car was rebodied by Baur, the Stuttgart coachbuilders. One of Germany’s best-known body-makers, Baur would go on to considerable fame constructing BMW’s convertible models, as a prototyping firm for various automakers, and as an occasional “skunkworks” for manufacturers, which famously handled the construction of the 959 for Porsche. In the rough early post-war years, when new chassis were scarce and hard for coachbuilders to acquire, Baur appears to have made something of a specialty of building similar exotic, streamlined modern bodies on used “junior” Mercedes chassis; photographs survive of similar coachwork in a variety of guises on other cars. The strong influence of other European coachbuilders, most prominently the French firms of Saoutchik and Antem, can be seen in the full-figured lines of the 230. An exciting opportunity to restore a unique automobile.
Spectacular streamlined custom coachwork on a pre-war six-cylinder chassis
Out of sight for 41 years
Accompanied by a copy of its Mercedes-Benz build sheet
Ideal restoration project
Price: $89, 500
