Most expensive car ever sold at auction: Mercedes-Benz W196 grand-prix race car

The most expensive car ever sold at auction is now a classic Mercedes-Benz W196 grand-prix race car driven by Formula 1 legend Juan Manuel Fangio, who drove the car to win the 1954 German and Swiss Grands Prix.
The ’54 Mercedes-Benz single seater sold for $29,650,095 to a private buyer over the telephone.
Auctioneer Robert Brooks of Bonhams Goodwood, said the car was the most important historic Grand Prix racing car ever offered for sale.
From Car and Driver:
Fangio’s W196 may have set the world’s record price, but it’s still a few shekels short of the outright sticker-price title. A 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO built for Sir Stirling Moss changed hands in a private sale last summer for a rumored $35 million. The $29 million and change, however, does smash the previous auction record set at $16.4 million when a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa rolled onto the auction block.