In the late 1990s, the FIA introduced the GT championship to replace the then defunct International Touring Car Championship. Along with this new series came a specific homologation requirement that resulted in automakers being forced to build 25 street versions of their racing cars. Mercedes took the opportunity to compete in the new top class alongside Porsche and McLaren, and so the mighty CLK GTR was born. Thanks to Gooding and Company, you now have the chance to take home the ninth CLK GTR “street version” ever built.
Mercedes built a total of 35 CLK GTRs, including the prototypes, racing cars and street-legal variants. Only 20 coupés and six roadsters were built, the ninth of them in series. The car is based on a carbon fiber and aluminum monocoque developed by Lola with a 6.9 liter V-12 engine behind the driver. Good for an impressive 604 hp and 572 lb-ft of torque on road trim, the M120-based engine is paired with a six-speed sequential manual gearbox with paddle control. During that time, Merceded claimed the CLK GTR went from 0 to 100 mph in just 3.8 seconds and had a top speed of 214 mph. All of that feat wasn’t cheap, as the CLK GTR’s base price of $ 1,547,620 made it the most expensive car in the world at the time.
Gooding & Company
Fortunately for the customers, the high price on the racetrack was justified. During the eleven races of the 1997 season, the mega-CLK achieved six victories, which Mercedes brought in both the team and driver championships that year. Not bad for a car developed in just 128 days from hacking and then crashing a McLaren F1. After such a successful run in 1997, Mercedes returned in 1998 with the aim of winning Le Mans. The car manufacturer has brought the CLK GTR back to the workshop. The resulting CLK LM variant replaced GTR’s V-12 with a modified 5.0-liter V-8 that was first used by the Sauber C9 and C11 models. However, the CLK LM was a naturally aspirated engine that developed 600 hp from the race-proven engine. Unfortunately for Mercedes, both CLK LMs racing at Le Mans suffered engine damage within the first hours of the event. Instead of a triumphant victory, Mercedes had to watch Porsche take the trophy home.
However, this disappointment would not last. The CLK LM models replaced the V-12-powered CLK GTR with the third race of the GT championship in 1998 and won every race thereafter. The Mercedes were so dominant that they even achieved six 1-2 placings during the run. Since Porsche and McLaren were no longer interested in defeat, they withdrew from the GT championship series after the 1998 season. The FIA went on to kill the series before the 1999 season. All was not lost, however, when the FIA launched the Le Mans Grand Tourer Prototype series to replace the GT championship. Thanks to a little help from the AMG team, the CLK LM would evolve into the Mercedes CLR. This Le Mans racer is arguably best known for causing us one of the most terrifying accidents in motorsport history when Peter Dumbreck’s CLR blew up. Mercedes canceled the CLR program shortly afterwards.
This particular CLK GTR street version is slated to go on sale at Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach auction next month. The car in Lot # 50 is estimated to bring in between $ 8.5 million and $ 10 million. That’s an obscene amount of money, but this is quite simply one of the coolest cars ever made. This one has less than 900 miles on the odometer, but it’s possible that that has to do with the show or display laws that allow the car to be here in the first place. Still, it’s hard not to fall in love with a motorsport icon like the CLK GTR. More information about the car can be found here on the auction page.
Gooding & Company
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