Long before almost every brand had a car that could hit 100km/h in less than five seconds, this sort of performance was reserved for supercars that were a genuine terror to drive.
Not only were these machines scary on the road, but they were also extremely hard to come by, and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR is no exception in this field.
Click here to view all Mercedes-Benz listings on DRIVEN
To meet the FIA GT Championship rules, Mercedes-Benz had to build a road-going variant of the race, which meant that a grand total of 26 CLK GTR cars were delivered to customers.
Alongside the Porsche Carerra GT1, and the McLaren F1 GTR, this CLK GTR is one of the most sought-after homologation specials in existence, and one is coming up for auction later this month.
According to Gooding & Company, this CLK GTR was the ninth to be built, and was sold new in 1997 to Hermann-Dieter Eschmann in Germany. It was then sold in 2005, and changed hands a few times before landing in the hands of the Cheval Trust in Seattle.
Despite being over two decades old, this V12-powered beast has covered just 1,442km in its lifetime, meaning that it's still basically in factory-fresh condition.
Speaking of the engine, its 6.9-litre power plant produces an impressive 450kW and 775Nm of torque. Power is sent exclusively to the rear wheels, and back in its day, it could sprint to 100km/h in around 3.8 seconds.
“Accompanying the Mercedes-Benz at auction are a plethora of important and fascinating items originally delivered with the car, " said Gooding in the release.
"In addition to its manuals and the original carbon front undertray, which was at some point replaced, the car is offered with its hard shipping case containing its numbered battery charger, a torque wrench and socket for the wheels, and wooden blocks to rest the car on while using its onboard hydraulic jacks.”
While it isn't the rarest CLK GTR available (that title goes to the roadster, of which just six were produced), this coupe is still set to fetch a pretty penny or two when it crosses the auction block at Pebble Beach.
Gooding & Company has predicted that it will fetch between US$8.5-$10million (or $12.2-$14.3million) when it hits the auction block.
