2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster

This car, Lot 38, sold for $10,235,000, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s Las Vegas, NV auction, on November 17, 2023.

Some sources attribute the axiom “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” to prolific Rhode Island Ford dealer Bob Tasca Sr., yet it likely dates to the first racer who ambitiously pitched skeptical managers that track victories would profitably burnish their brand. Its validation emerged in a surging post-war America, where Red Byron’s 1949 “Strictly Stock” NASCAR championship victory in a Rocket V8-powered Oldsmobile boosted the division’s 1950 sales to nearly 400,000 units. Tim Flock’s Chrysler C-300 Hemi later dominated the 1955 NASCAR season, which, combined with Virgil Exner’s brilliant styling, all but erased Chrysler’s dowdy past.

That competition cars should have some — albeit tenuous — relationship with their roadgoing counterparts peaked three decades later with two FIA racing series, Group B and GT1. The fast-paced Group B rallies of the early 1980s produced such dangerously potent machines as the Lancia 037, the Ford RS200 and the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16. The values of their homologation counterparts have held up well, as evidenced by RM Sotheby’s sale of the World Rally Classic Collection in Monterey last year, where a 205 Turbo 16 fetched $329,500 and an RS200 topped $600,000. Exclusivity has its benefits.

The rarest of the rare

Yet even more specialized were the road-racing homologation cars that emerged the following decade as part of the 1997 GT Championship series. Its dominant entrants were the McLaren F1 GTR, the Porsche 911 GT1 and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.

Mercedes documented the CLK GTR’s bruising four-month development in a detailed video history, though understandably omitting that its accelerated timing relied heavily on a privateer’s F1 GTR donor car. The competition CLK GTR was followed by the Straßenversion, 25 of which were stipulated by FIA rules. It had the highest original MSRP of the trio at $1.6m, but unlike the McLaren, which was an evolution of the F1 street car, it was a true track derivative. (So too was Porsche’s 911 GT1.)

The CLK GTR’s dramatic proportions channeled the exotic appearance of pre-war streamliners with its extreme dimensions — nearly 16 feet long while just four feet high. A limited list of changes differentiated the roadster version (reputedly launched to address lackluster sales of the coupe), which relocated engine intakes, added door-mounted mirrors, integrated roll-hoops behind the seats, and also used a new front grille and a new rear wing. There were no provisions for a top.

Membership has its challenges

Not surprisingly, such a complex car can be as difficult to own as it is to drive. This perhaps explains why some, like our 170-km subject car, slumber in closeted collections. However, those brave and nimble enough to maneuver themselves into the cramped cockpit of a CLK GTR are rewarded with a unique experience.

One former owner, who has generously exhibited his car at several East Coast events, explained, “There’s enough analog in them that they’re still pure and raw and very tactile and aggressive, but also have enough modern elements that their build quality and performance are very similar to a contemporary car. It’s right at the intersection of where those things were at their best, still dangerous and intimidating, yet modern enough to be usable.”

Those intimidations include a 49-foot turning radius, an awkward clutch-and-paddle transmission, and the absence of any rear visibility. Though the car does have rear parking sensors, as the owner told me, “You try to keep the car going forward rather than backward.”

An elite trio

Participation in this elite club has proved rewarding, with McLarens transacting the highest. Gooding & Company’s record sale of an F1 for $20.5m in 2021 has likely been eclipsed by private sales that are said to have gone even higher. Porsche 911 GT1 auction sales have been less frequent; a Gooding & Company sale at $5.7 million in 2017 is the last we’ve seen. However, in the private market, these are valued between $12m–$20m today.

This CLK GTR roadster is not far behind, setting a new benchmark for the model at $10.2m. Previous public sales are limited, although RM Sotheby’s sold a coupe for $4.5m in 2018. Certainly, the recent rise in interest in modern supercars that has led to significant appreciation in values for models such as the Ferrari F40 and F50 and the Porsche Carrera GT has had its effect here. (Though curiously, at the same auction in Las Vegas, the coupe accompanying our subject car was a no-sale across the block, failing to reach its low estimate of $8m.)

Mercedes’ domination of GT1 in 1998 with the successor CLK LM spelled the end of the series, as other manufacturers pulled out. Based on the FIA’s relaxation of homologation rules, just one CLK LM street version was built. A market price in the $15m-$20m range today would not surprise should it come up for public sale. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)