You Could Own Michael Schumacher's Old Mercedes C63 Company Car

A C63 loaned to Schumacher by Mercedes after he joined the company's newly formed F1 team is up for auction
You Could Own Michael Schumacher's Old Mercedes C63 Company Car

In January 2010, Michael Schumacher was preparing for his grand F1 comeback with the team briefly known as Brawn GP. The Brackley-based outfit had been snapped up by Daimler AG and renamed ‘Mercedes GP’, meaning Schumi needed an on-brand company car befitting of a family man and seven-time F1 champion.

Merc’s solution? An ideal one, in our view - the C63 AMG estate loaded up with around €20,000 of optional extras. Specifically, the black C63 wagon seen on this page, which could soon be yours if you have a spare £50,000 or so floating around.

You Could Own Michael Schumacher's Old Mercedes C63 Company Car

Schumacher had use of the AMG until 28 July 2010, and although it remained registered to Mercedes in Switzerland during this time, the former Ferrari driver was named on the Fahrzeugausweis (registration document) as ‘Conducteur’. It doesn’t sound like Schumacher drove the car a great deal, with most of the car’s mileage clocked by the second owner - a Swiss man who had the keys from 2011 to 2015.

It was well looked after in those years, receiving seven services. It was sold to a Mercedes engineer in Germany at 146,278 kilometres, who changed a few things including the wheels while using the car sparingly, failing to clock more than 1000 kilometres.

You Could Own Michael Schumacher's Old Mercedes C63 Company Car

The current owner bought the C63 in early 2018 and kept it maintained at a local Mercedes dealer. It was only ever driven in summer, and not particularly far - his stint brought the odometer reading to 152,000 kilometres (94,450 miles).

As a reminder, these W204-era C63s develop 451bhp from a 6.2-litre naturally-aspirated V8. Granted, these days AMG makes a 2.0-litre inline-four that’s almost as powerful, but in terms of soundtrack and responsiveness, the bigger engine is the clear winner.

You Could Own Michael Schumacher's Old Mercedes C63 Company Car

It also has more going for it than straight-line punch, marking a step-change from previous AMG efforts, which usually amounted to getting an ordinary model, dumping in a big engine and doing little else. The C63 was a far more thoroughly engineered car providing decent handling, if not quite BMW M3 levels of sharpness.

With the oldest examples now well over a decade old, the C63 makes for a relatively affordable used buy. The historical significance of this one does come at quite a premium, however. Bonhams, which is set to auction the car in Paris next month, gives an estimate of €50,000 - 100,000 (around £42,000 - £84,000). Or for an even more curious four-wheeled piece of Schumacher memorabilia, a Tesla Roadster he drove in the 2010 Race of Champions will go under the hammer at the same event.

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