Rare cars demand rare quantities of dollars to be spent. Such is surely to be the case when a Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster crosses the block at a Bonhams auction taking place during June's Goodwood Festival of Speed. We're dealing with a car that is one of just six examples built, and it's essentially a race car for the road that's had its roof chopped off. Incredibly, this particular example belonged to a Dutch collector who has only racked up six kilometers—less than four miles—on the clock, reports Autovisie.
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The CLK GTR Roadster was built as part of a homologation deal required of Mercedes-Benz when it set out to compete in the GT1 class in top-level endurance racing. This class was actually discontinued in 1999, but Mercedes-Benz made promises to folks who raised their hands with fistfuls of cash to buy said homologation specials. The full racing version of the CLK GTR competed in both the 1997 and 1998 FIA GT seasons. In 22 races, the Mercedes team saw 17 wins and walked away with both the drivers' and constructors' championships in both seasons.
The road-going car carries the same 6.0-liter V-12 engine as the racing cars, but with a slew of upgrades over that dedicated machine. It's been bored out to 6.9 liters and isn't fitted with the air restrictors that the race cars wore. This means the car has an output of 604 horsepower and 572 pound-feet of torque. It will run from 0-62 mph in under four seconds and reach a top speed of around 200 mph.
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In total, Mercedes-Benz produced 26 road-going versions of the CLK GTR. Twenty of these were coupes, and just six were the roofless roadster versions like the one for sale here. Bonhams estimates that the car should fetch a price between $2.2 million and $2.8 million.
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