The CLK-GTR is a unique car. It looks like it’s about to conquer the toughest races, but it’s actually a road legal beast. Well, barely road-legal.
Nevertheless, it’s sad to think that the CLK-GTR is part of an extinct species of motoring culture that’s never coming back. Let’s face it, the CLK-GTR, along with Porsche 911 GT1 Straßenversion and McLaren F1 GTR, are the kind of automobiles that car manufacturers only build once in a life time.
Constructed for homologation purposes only, this type of Benz is as hardcore as a car can get – not only for a production model, but for a racing one as well. It was the materialization of Mercedes desire to win. This is how “we want to win this more than anything” looks like.
In order to compete in the FIA GT championship un-strangled by rules, Mercedes took advantage of the regulations which stated that in order to qualify for racing, a car needs to be based on a production road-going vehicle which has been produced in a minimum quantity of 25 examples – thus 26 CLK-GTRs were born.
From the 26 total examples, 6 of them were drop-tops, making the car even more exotic than it was – because, you know, driving a GT1 Spec car on the streets clearly wasn’t special enough. Under the hood of the road-legal monster, lies an enormous 6.9-litre, AMG V12 engine, which produces 604-horses and 775 Nm of torque. The cars weighs a hefty 1,440 Kg, but the engine manages to sprint the Mercedes from 0 to 100 Km/h (62mph) in just 3.8 seconds.
So, if you think finding one for sale is an occasion, you’re totally right. But finding one for sale with only 6 kilometers on the clock, is like finding a live unicorn. This black beast is coming up for sale at the Goodwood Festival of speed and it’s offered by Bonhams. For an estimated $2.2-$2.8 million dollars you can get your hands on the only black-painted, untouched, unused CLK-GTR roadster in existence.
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