One to Buy: 1 of 5 ex-works 1998 Mercedes-Benz CLK LM
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Even though Porsche created their own reverse engineered machine for the late 90s GT1 scene, it took the might of Mercedes-Benz to topple McLaren over the course of an entire season.
From spring 1998, the CLK GTR in which Bernd Schneider won the 1997 FIA GT Championship for Drivers and Mercedes took the Manufacturers’ crown, was replaced by the further updated CLK LM.
Conceived for Mercedes’ first trip to Le Mans since 1991, the heavily revised CLK LM proved sufficiently good that Mercedes elected to run it in the remainder of the ‘98 FIA GT Championship. Ultimately, both titles were secured for the second year in succession as Mercedes won all ten races on the calendar.
Only five examples of the CLK LM were built for Mercedes by AMG, one of which is currently on offer at the Joe Macari showroom in London.
Whereas chassis 003 and 004 were campaigned at Le Mans and chassis 001 and 002 were used in the FIA GT Championship, chassis 005 served as a test and development vehicle.
Following Mercedes’ successful 1998 campaign, chassis 005 was sold to a Japanese collector with whom the car remained for many years. Chassis 005 returned to Europe in 2013, since which time it has resided in two major collections.
Most recently, the car has undergone a major overhaul and been issued with UK road registration.
