There’s a strong argument to say that if you are convinced by that and plan to make garage space available for a CLK GTR, the 1998 example in the auction in California on August 24th-25th is the one to do it for. It is the ninth of the 25 made, and is as-new with just 1,500km (930 miles) accrued under its three owners. The car has recently been imported to the US where it has been federalized for 50 states, making it rarer still.
The bargain Benz you’d be buying into is unquestionably a GT1 great with its extreme bodywork and 6.9-litre V12 pumping out 600bhp for 0-100mph in six and a bit seconds and a top speed of 214mph. The racing CLK GTRs battled McLaren and Porsche through the late 1990s, becoming the dominant force in the 1997 and ’98 GT1 Championship seasons. No surprise perhaps when you consider it was built as a racer first and then homologated as a road car – the direct opposite of what McLaren did.
And the guide price for the undervalued German beast? The good news is it’s a quarter the value of a McLaren F1. The bad news is that’s still $4.2-5.2 million (£3.2-4m).
As we said, a bargain!