Clk Gtr

[crayzayjay]

From CAR, Essential Supercars extract

After driving the McLaren F1 back in 1994, I really didnt think Id ever drive a more expensive car, because surely no one would ever cough up more than £640,000 on 4 wheels and a big engine, right? So you can imagine my surprise when i got invited to the Hockenhiem circuit in late 1998 to the launch of the Mercedes Benz CLK GTR, which, at DM 2,650,000 plus taxes rang the till at £1.1 million pounds. Ching ching! Ching-ching-ching-ching-ching!
This 612bhp road car was based on Mercedes' V12 sports racer of 1997, and AMG got permission to build 25 examples of it as a bit of a sweetener, before this small independent company was bought out by the Mercedes empire. A bit of a lucrative pension scheme, i think.
Anyway, it was the most tenuous road car conversion ive ever seen - cramped, hot, with a vicious clutch, and yes, underfloor air jacks. It was a Le Mans racer with central locking and a cd player.
So the journalists lined up to have a go, each personally badgered by an AMG staff member - its so powerful, they told us, please be careful. Take your time, dont push it. And i respected them for their efforts - if youre only going to build 25 cars and each one is worth over a million, you dont want one stacked at the launch, do you? I mean, really, do you?
First man out was Paul Frere, respected Belgian journalist, former Ferrari F1 driver and surely one of the safest pair of hands on the planet. The kind that could have worked as a bomb disposal expert. Anyway, he gets first shot, to show us all how its done, and bingo, within 3 minutes he lamps the most expensive supercar ever built into Hockenheim's concrete wall. Which spoilt the rest of the day, i can tell you.
Half an hour later, round the back of the pits, I saw Frere making polite conversation with the AMG mechanic who was washing the mud off the GTR's split carbon fibre nose. What a gentleman. I think i remember that scene more than i remember the car.


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That just cracks me up every time i read it

cheers,
jay

[Pennzoil GT-R]

haha, i read the review on the launch in another magazine somewhere, Top Gear it may have been.

My favourite car of all time.

[crayzayjay]

Did you see the Driven episode where Jason Plato drives Bin Sullayem's CLK-GTR? Spec-tacular

[DemonZX]

I don't want to say that is funny but.....:hehe: :hehehe: :cwn27:

[crayzayjay]

think of the guy who'd actually bought that car... AMG calls him up "hello sir, remember you'd agreed to let your million pound car be driven for magazine tests, well.. theres been a small accident" heheh...

[NSX]

That's too bad...did the former F1 guy have to reimburse the organizers?

[crayzayjay]

Nope. Journos arent accountable for any damage at these functions.