woodland hills?

[diabloroadster2]

does anyone happen to know if there is a McLaren in Woodland Hills?

i went down there today, to the new ferrari dealer, and asked if they knew where the clk-gtr roadster was, and if it was available for public viewing. the guy said it was in a private collection.. and he metioned the guys name, which i would recognize, but i forget.

i was just curious as to if this man had an F1 in, what i assume, is a very nice collection

[Peloton25]

Why did you ask about the CLK-GTR Roadster at the AutoGallery? The place advertising it is in Santa Monica.

The AutoGallery does have an association with somone who owns a CLK-GTR racer - his name is Rusty West. He doesn't own an F1, but did have a Jag XJ220 S (the race version built by TWR) when I met him. I asked him if he had any interest in owning an F1 and he told me that having one tempermental British Supercar was bad enough.

Maybe that's who they were referring to...?

If you can make it over to Westlake Village, there's supposed to be a Seal Grey Carrera GT in the Rusnak showroom right now.

>8^)
ER

[diabloroadster2]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=31853

thats the clk-gtr i was searching for. it looks like the showroom of the mercedes dealer in Calabasas, which is why i went there.

rusty west is the owner of the roadster. i knew id recognize it

ive seen enough CGT's for now. they havent impressed me that much.

[Peloton25]

That could very well be the Mercedes showroom in Calabasas - I haven't been in there for several years, so its hard to be certain. Anyway, I really don't believe that Rusty owns the roadster. He has a GTR racer - in fact it's this very car that belongs to him:


Clickable...

The roadster's owner - unless the car has been sold in the past 3-4 months - is the person listed as the contact in that Ebay auction, Mark Johnston. He and his brother Ernie own a high-end exotic car dealership in Santa Monica, CA called Grand Prix Motors - www.grandprixsales.com

You can see a listing for this car on their site, but I have no idea if this car is currently on display at their dealership in Santa Monica, or if it's tucked away somewhere for safe keeping. The info on that site says that the car would be available for German delivery in December 2002, so the info there seems quite outdated.

From the auction: "It is owned by a very famous celebrity"

I don't know if that is true or not, but Rusty is no celebrity. He started a company called MarketScan ( www.marketscan.com ) and they make leasing software used by about 70% of the car dealerships in the nation last I heard. He's not famous by any means, but he certainly seems to be quite wealthy given his car collection. The fact that he owns a GTR racer and is affiliated with the AutoGallery Ferrari dealer leads me to believe that when you asked about a CLK GTR, the person you asked made no distinction you were asking about a Roadster at all and just knew that Rusty had the one pictured. In fact, that photo I shared of his CLK GTR was taken in their lot at the Grand Opening party for the AutoGallery when it was purchased from the Ogner family.

Incidentally, I also saw the CLK GTR Roadster in person at the other dealership the Johnston's own - Ojai Ford. I spoke directly to Mark Johnston that day and he mentioned no celebrity owner - he told me they had brought the car to the USA to generate interest in their Santa Monica dealership and that it was for sale for around 2.9 million. Here's a shot of the car the day I saw it - I have about 100 other ones at home on my PC:



...and yes, they did tie a balloon to the mirror of a +2 Million dollar car.

>8^)
ER

[diabloroadster2]

The Roadster picture on ebay are from the Calabasas dealer. the setup outside is the same. My thought is that they were showing it for some period of time.

It is quite possible that the man I asked thought i ment a different type.

do you know when/where he purchased the race version? there was one for sale in Los Gatos a few years back and im trying to remember what color the mirrors were. (it was back before my photography days)

[Peloton25]

I believe Rusty purchased that car in early 2002 as I saw it in May of that year and he apparently had not had it for very long. It was also said to be "the only one in the country" at that time. There was a coupe Strasseversion in Florida, but his was supposedly the only race version here. If it came through Los Gatos, I wouldn't know.

That Roadster has been displayed all over the place, including a few "Hot Import Nights" shows which led many to suspect it wasn't real or was some kind of insane body kit on a Honda. It would make sense that a Mercedes dealer would want to display it, but in my mind that could really be any Mercedes Benz dealer - they all pretty much look the same. If you could see the 101 Fwy out the window in those photos, it would be more convincing to me that its the Calabasas dealer. Its hard to say for sure. Did you specifically ask them if they had ever displayed the car?

>8^)
ER

[cabrio92]

Hello,

maybe it can help you :
1) on www.carclassic.com a year ago, I remember, they told that chassis n°1 and 5 of the CLK roadster were sold to CLK GTR coupe owners.
2) 2.9m$ what a f.... price ! There is one to sell with 5000km at 1,2m€

Ciao
phil

[Peloton25]

The Roadster that is here in the USA is #5 of 5. It's mentioned in the auction as well I believe.

>8^)
ER

[diabloroadster2]

no point in spending a lot of time figuring out who ownes it, seeing as it will be sold in 12 hours

now just have to find out where its going