1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K

This is the original car that caused jaws to drop at the 1936 Paris show. Like so many Mercedes have through the years, this one represented the state of the art, with features like unequal-length control arm coil-sprung front suspension and a swing-axle rear end, and a supercharger that boosted the 5.4-liter six’s output to 180 hp. It was originally purchased by a wealthy Belgian petrochemical engineer’s son.