The Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend has started. If you’re lucky enough to enjoy the events from a different angle than the people who had to leave their seats because of bad management by Formula One, you should have a great day. This is especially important if you want to go to the sales this weekend that are going on at the same time as the event. This 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR Roadster is without a doubt the most sought-after of the many beautiful cars being sold at RM Sotheby’s. Some car fans who grew up with Need for Speed and the great days of GT racing don’t need an introduction to the CLK GTR. It comes up right away when you look for “homologation special,” and you can’t help but notice it, even if you don’t know about its history. Mercedes made a total of 28 working versions of the device, two of which were prototypes. The roofless versions, on the other hand, are the most interesting. This is partly because they came out later than the others and also because a race car is meant to have a roof. When Mercedes-Benz bought AMG, it didn’t have a racing division. One of AMG’s founders, Hans-Werner Aufrecht, started HWA and was in charge of making these even rarer CLK GTRs. The exact amount of power that the CLK GTR Straßenversions have is unknown, but it is thought to be between 600 and 655 horsepower. Both of the open SuperSport cars with the 7.2-liter Merc M297 V12 engines are thought to have the most power. People say that these can run on 6.9 liters of gas. That’s too bad. On a CLK GTR, the engine intake is usually above the roof. But since the Roadster has one, it was moved to both sides of the roll hoops. Also, the big rear wing that was meant to blend in well with the car’s long tail was replaced with a part similar to competition-spec hardware. Inside, these road-going CLK GTRs had the most advanced comforts available at the time, such as anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, and a Harman/Kardon sound system. Out of six cars, this CLK GTR Roadster is ranked third. It won’t come as a surprise that the Sultan of Brunei ordered one of these in the first place. Four different people have owned the Silver Arrow since it was brought into the country in 2011 under the Show and Display permit. It has just over 100 kilometers on it. It could fetch between $10.5 million and $13 million at auction on Friday before the race. A version with a roof is expected to sell for a little less as well. You could have bought fifty of these and still paid for the biggest Grand Prix race show if Mercedes had made that many.
