Thread: Clr?
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Old 02-11-2004, 02:53 PM   #23
Cockrocket
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Re: Clr?

just to clear a few things up
In 1997 the mercedes bezn clk gtr trounched the competetion in the FIA GT series and Bernd Schnieder won the championship, but the car did not enter le mans, to late. 25 road legal examples were made of this car. In 1998 mercedes developed the CLK GTR by giving it a V8 engine instead of the heavier V12 which chucked out just the same amount of BHP.They called it the CLK LM which also had a slighly lower profile and ultimatley lapped 2 to 3 seconds faster than the GTR. Only 1 road legal version was made. It had engine troubles at le mans and did not finish, but it got a 100%, 10 out of 10 victories in the FIA GT championship. In 1999 mercedes took the design another step further to create the CLR which was lighter, faster, more aerodynamicly efficient and looked gorgeouse. But asmost people now in the le mans on 2 occasions the CLR flipped at over 215mph due to a possible aerodynamic floor (which i think it unlikely as it had traveled over 25,000 miles in testing without this problem) or had a bad suspension set up (more likely as the le mans track was bumby, fast, slow and smooth, practicaly impossible to get a good suspension set up for all those problems) so when it went over a brow on the muslanne straight, it bounced a little to much (due to the suspension being realy tighte because it had a VERY low ride height) got to much air under the flat bottom of the car and took off. Those are the stories of some of my favourite race cars ever. Well i havent workd out how to put pictures on the post but here is a little guide to all the versions as it took me a good few years to distinguish between them all

1997 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR racer Won the FIA GT series
Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR road car 25 made sold for £1.1 million
1998 Mercedes-Benz CLK LM racer Won FIA GT series/Lost Le mans
Mercedes-Benz CLK LM 1road legal version made.
(NOTE: The bonnet made lower for extra vents either side of windshield, ultimatly looks longer because it is not as high as the GTR)
1999 Mercedes-Benz CLR racer Lost le mans in a 200mph+ flip
No road legal versions made
(NOTE: looks extremely low and very smooth)
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