Equipment
Roots supercharger, dual updraft carbs, chrome wire wheels, Dunlop Fort tires, rear fender skirts with faux hubcaps, locking filler cap, suicide doors, cloth-covered rear-mounted spare wheel set into deck, dual exhaust, Bosch headlamps, single Bosch fog light, dash clock.
Condition
Very good paint with some minor flaws. Very good chrome and interior. A well-kept older restoration that has seen some use. Ordered new by William A.M. Burden, Jr., grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who went to Mercedes in 1936 to ask for a 540K with a custom body. This almost French-looking car with its sloped grille and teardrop-shaped fenders was the result. It was then owned from 1963 by GM stylist Herbert Roy Jaffe who finally restored it in 1993, when it became an AACA National First Prize winner. Featured in Michael Frostick's The Mighty Mercedes, in Car Collector Magazine and in Dennis Adler's Speed & Luxury: The Great Cars. A striking, unique automobile that is still a stunner but no longer a flawless concours car.
Market commentary
Not your standard 540K, but an attractive, unusual example with coachwork that will make any Mercedes-Benz owner proud to own it and a dramatic design that recalls the legendary Autobahn Kourier ... but with a top that goes down. An outstanding, rare and attractive car that was reported sold by RM in Arizona in 2007 for $1,028,500, then here in Monterey in 2010 for $913,000. A handsome payday for the seller, but also a trophy car for the new owner and impossible to argue with.