1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Cabriolet

Built for their wealthiest and most demanding clients, the Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster was the Mercedes-Benz flagship in the prewar years. Introduced in 1936, just twenty-six 540K Special Roadsters were built, and of these, only a few were exported to the United States.

This Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet, bodied by Berlin coachbuilder Erdmann & Rossi, was ordered by Barbara Hutton, the wealthy Woolworth heiress and socialite, as a gift for her future husband, Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow. She asked for several unusual features, including a passenger compartment to seat four adults and custom-built wheel covers. The most unusual, and seemingly capricious, request was to fit purely decorative exhaust pipes on the left side of the car so it would look symmetrical. This unique Mercedes-Benz later appeared in the 1941 Hal Roach movie Topper Returns. It has been with the Keller Collection since the late 1980s.