Thursday 24th September 2009

Two CLK GTRs Fall Under The Hammer

Two 'million-pound Mercs' up for auction at a bargain price...

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You may remember the Mercedes CLK GTR as the 'million pound car'. Well, now the only two right-hand drive examples of the ultra-rare 612bhp homologation special are coming up for auction and, despite their impressive rarity, both are expected to fetch less than half of their original price.

A coupe and an even-rarer roadster variant are going under the hammer at the end of October, both cars have only delivery miles on the clock and have never been registered.

How they came to be in this state has not been revealed, but we'd guess a private collector may be 'liquidating' some prize pieces as the global economy continues to flounder. We had heard previously that there was only ever one right-hand drive CLK GTR, built for that petrolhead among, er, petrol, the Sultan of Brunei, but now the situation seems less clear.

This particular coupe is apparently number 13 of 25 built. It wasn't even delivered until 2005, which is a little surprising given that by then most CLK GTRs weren't even in their warranty period anymore! Its 6.9-litre V12 has propelled it only 25 kilometres since new, which is roughly half-a-blink in CLK GTR terms, and the showroom-fresh coupe is expected to fetch £370,000-£390,000.

The roadster example up for sale is even newer, with production completed in '06, and again the description insists that it's the only right-hand drive example of its kind. Only five roadsters were ever built, and this is apparently number 2, originally sold for 1.3 million euros. It makes you wince a bit to think that the same car, just 34 kilometres later, is estimated at £430,000 - £500,000. Somewhere along the line, it's lost a four-bed detached house-worth of value...

RM Auctions is holding the sale on 28 October in London. Best not drive there, though - apparently adding miles to your car can seriously affect its value...

 

[Mini1275]

One of my all time favourite cars

Look at that engine!

Edited by Mini1275 on Thursday 24th September 12:48

[olimeads]

I will take the hard top, couldn't stand that roadsters interior. Also that air box looks rather cool.

[Soovy]

Didn't Flemke drive one of these and say it was utter st?

Edited by Soovy on Thursday 24th September 12:50

[BoRED S2upid]

So how fast will these go?. Rather either of those than a Bug Veyron. And they are allready silver so no need to do a silver wrap.

[Stablelad]

Soovy said:

Didn't Flemke drive one of these and say it was utter st?

Edited by Soovy on Thursday 24th September 12:50

These are very well documented to be a truly awful drive. Look brill though.

[JumpinJack]

[alsem]

can I swap them both for everything I have? :P

[mat205125]

Massive pedigree. Amazing to look at. Awsome sound.

Can't quite work out how the two pictures of 1970's Berlin Taxis got into the pictures, however one does have a nice wooly steering wheel cover - presumably for winter use.

[GPT]

Screen-wash needs a top up on the roadster. Otherwise I'd buy it.

Doesn't this car have a paddleshift 'box but also a manual clutch?

[Soovy]

mat205125 said:

Massive pedigree. Amazing to look at. Awsome sound.

Can't quite work out how the two pictures of 1970's Berlin Taxis got into the pictures, however one does have a nice wooly steering wheel cover - presumably for winter use.

[Chris_w666]

The reworked 300SL with a V8 AMG motor in the same auction is much lovelier.

[smack]

mat205125 said:

Can't quite work out how the two pictures of 1970's Berlin Taxis got into the pictures, however one does have a nice wooly steering wheel cover - presumably for winter use.

[Animal]

GPT said:

Screen-wash needs a top up on the roadster. Otherwise I'd buy it.

Doesn't this car have a paddleshift 'box but also a manual clutch?

Apparently due to cabin space being so tight that one does not have room to move one's elbow - or maybe it's to accentuate the car's motorsports heritage or something!

[Turbobanana]

Don't buy one if you like tailgating - they flip over at speed if you follow too closely

[GPT]

Review from Tiff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WLoIbZOqOY&fea...

[BelperJim]

Is this the worst depreciating car of all time?

[BigBen]

The LM version has the same engine as my S-class (M119 engine) I think they used one of those chips of ebay to make it race spec

Ben

[iluvmercs]

Holy Crap!
They're both Right Hand Drive.
Apparently both of the Sultan of Brunei, so I read somewhere.

Utterly gorgeous car, and the ultimate Mercedes!

Darren

Edited by iluvmercs on Thursday 24th September 13:40

[chevronb37]

I was very fortunate to see the GTRs racing in FIA GT in 1997 at both Donington and Silverstone and fabulous beasts they were too - although by then it was really homologation special racing, rather than pure GTs. You couldn't pay me enough money to drive one of these on the road though - they look woeful.

[PhantomPH]

Some 'pics of the week' right there. :dribble: