In the mid-90s, big automakers like Porsche, McLaren, and Ferrari were interested in a new racing competition that would put their best cars to the test. Noticing the demand, the FIA took control of the BPR Global GT Series, standardized the race length, and renamed it the FIA GT Championship. As expected, most top automakers were interested in joining the new competition, including the likes of McLaren and Porsche.

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Mercedes-Benz didn't want to be left behind, so it built a special car to join the competition - the AMG CLK GTR. Produced by AMG long before it became a Mercedes-Benz subsidiary, the CLK GTR was instantly popular when it debuted in 1997, and it turned out to be a huge success. Let's explore ten quick facts about this incredible race car.

10 Developed In 4 Months

Mercedes-Benz-CLK-GTR
via Gooding and company

The process of developing a high-performance sports car from scratch can take a while. It takes even longer to develop proper race cars - years, in some cases. That wasn't the case with the CLK GTR.

Mercedes-Benz-CLK-GTR
via gooding and company

When Mercedes-Benz learned of the FIA's plan to introduce the GT Championship in 1996, it immediately got to work and started designing the CLK GTR. After the initial drawings were made, it took Mercedes-Benz a mere 128 days to complete the first two prototypes that participated in the 1997 championship.

9 Porsche-Inspired Design

Front 3/4 view of the 911 GT1
Via favcars.com

In 1996, the revival of top-level sports car racing prompted Porsche to develop a new race car - the 911 GT1. Porsche exploited the rule book when developing the 911 GT1, and instead of modifying a production car as McLaren had done with the F1 LM, they effectively built a race car from scratch.

Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion
Via Steemit

Seeing how good the 911 GT1 turned out to be, Mercedes-Benz decided to follow Porsche's lead and developed the CLK GTR as a race car.

8 Extreme Power

Mercedes Benz CLK GTR 2 Cropped
Via en.wikipedia.org

Mercedes-Benz wanted the CLK GTR to destroy every car in its path, so they equipped it with their most powerful engine at the time - a 6.0-liter naturally aspirated V12. With an output of around 600 hp and 538 lb-ft of torque, the CLK GTR was an absolute beast.

RELATED: These Were The Fastest Naturally Aspirated Cars Of The 1990s

Via MercedesBlog.com

Things were a bit different in the road car. Although it had the same V12 as the race car, its displacement was increased to 6.9 liters, increasing the output to 604 hp.

7 A Spartan Interior

Via MercedesBlog.com

The interior of the CLK GTR Strassenversion had some minor differences compared to the race car, but it still felt like a proper race car. For example, while the seats had some leather and Alcantara to offer some luxury, they were still as tight and bolstered as actual race seats and even had four-point race-style seat belts.

CLK GTR Interior
Via Romans International

Even the normal-looking steering wheel had a racecar-inspired mechanism to detach it quickly and paddle shifters behind it for quick gear changes. Sitting in the CLK GTR is the closest thing to being in a true GT1 car.

6 Lightweight Construction

1999-Mercedes-Benz-CLK-GTR-001-1440
Via: wsupercars

Although the CLK GTR is one of the most powerful cars of the '90s, it still needed to be lightweight to compete with other GT1 cars. As such, Mercedes-Benz did everything possible to keep its weight at just 3,175 lbs.

Mercedes CLK GTR - Rear
Via The Collectors Circle

To achieve such a low weight, the CLK GTR's chassis is made of carbon fiber and aluminum, while the bodywork is entirely made of carbon fiber.

5 A Race Car For The Road

CLK GTR
Via Secret Classics

As we mentioned earlier, the CLK GTR was developed as a race car from scratch. As such, the road-legal version comes with most of the elements found in the race car, including a massive V12 with plenty of power to play with.

RELATED: These Are The Sickest Road-Legal Race Cars Money Can Buy

1998 Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK GTR
Via RM Sothebys

One key difference between the race and road car is that the road car has a fixed separate racing rear wing instead of the hoop-style integrated wing in the race car. The road car also has leather upholstery, air conditioning, traction control, and two small storage lockers underneath each door.

4 There Were Several Versions To Choose From

CLK GTR
Via Mecum Auctions

Mercedes-Benz built several versions of the road-legal CLK GTR to meet different demands - a Coupe, a Roadster, and the incredible Super Sport. After completion of the Coupes, the roadsters were built with the help of HWA. The roadster had a different grille design, a redesigned rear wing, and two roll bars integrated into the cockpit headrests.

CLK GTR
Via Digital Trends

HWA also built the other variant - the CLK GTR Super Sport. This version was the most extreme, as it was powered by a larger 7.3-liter V12 with 711 hp on tap.

3 A Racing Champion

Mercedes Benz CLK GTR Cropped
Via en.wikipedia.org

After the first two prototypes were built, Mercedes-Benz entered the CLK GTR in the 1997 FIA GT Championship season. Although the car had a slow start due to brake problems, it didn't take long for Mercedes-Benz to fix the issues, and in the fourth round, the CLK GTR won its first races at the Nürburgring.

Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR On Display
Via: Sony DSC, Wikimedia Commons - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

By the end of its racing career, the CLK GTR had won 17 out of 22 races. In the process, the CLK GTR won two FIA GT Team Championships and two FIA GT Drivers' championships.

2 It's Super Rare

Mercedes CLK GTR Super Sport
Via TheHorsepowerHunter/YouTube

The CLK GTR is not the kind of car you see every day, as it's one of the rarest German sports cars ever. In fact, most gearheads will never see one in the flesh, as they're all hidden in collectors' garages.

Mercedes-Benz-AMG-CLK-GTR
Mercedesblog

FIA homologation rules required Mercedes-Benz to build 25 road-legal examples of the CLK GTR, but the company ended up producing 26. The first 20 were coupes, while the rest were roadsters.

1 The Most Expensive Production Car

CLK GTR
Via Girardo & Co

As anyone would expect from a high-performance race car built by Mercedes-Benz, prices are not friendly by any means. In fact, the CLK GTR's debut price of just over $1.5 million made it the most expensive production car ever built at the time.

CLK GTR
Via World of Benz

While $1.5 million is undoubtedly a lot of money, it's still a small fraction of the price collectors have to pay for the CLK GTR today. For example, one sold for almost $5 million at a 2018 auction.