It’s early Monday morning in the capital of Baden-Württemberg. The first commuters are making their way to work, and Stuttgart’s notorious traffic is slowly picking up. The sun is just rising on this day in June 2025 when the sound of an engine, one that even in the car city of Stuttgart is not heard every day, pierces the silence of the still largely sleepy city.
Driving into the city on the B10 federal highway from Zuffenhausen and Feuerbach, the first drivers rub their eyes in amazement. The star of the day appears at dawn: the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.
The SML CarGroup from Eberdingen near Stuttgart, vehicle experts for the most beautiful and rarest collector’s cars, presented this vehicle a few days earlier at the MYLE Festival in Munich, attracting the attention of numerous visitors. Even in Munich, influencers, car spotters, and bloggers were impressed by this masterpiece of automotive art. But even the biggest car fans have probably never seen it driving in real traffic in the middle of Stuttgart.
The CLK GTR is a pure racing car originally developed for the 1997 FIA GT Championship. To participate in the GT1 class, a minimum of 25 road-legal models had to be built. As Mercedes-Benz wanted to participate in the championship from 1997 onwards, the FIA granted a special exemption at the time. This made it possible to launch the road version a year later. The basis for this was the Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class (W208). Apart from the name and external features, such as the headlights, the CLK GTR has little in common with the production CLK. Not least because of the V12 mid-engine used.
The chassis and body are made of carbon fiber composite with an integrated steel roll bar. The engine and transmission perform load-bearing functions. The doors open diagonally upwards/forwards and not just upwards, as was the case with the legendary 300 SL gullwing model. This means that it is not possible to drive fast with the doors open. The engine is located directly in front of the rear axle and, with a displacement of 6,898 cc, delivers up to 631 hp at 6,500 rpm.
From November 1998 to summer 1999, a total of 20 CLK GTR Coupés were built at HWA in Affalterbach. In 2002, a small series of five CLK GTRs was produced as the CLK GTR Roadster without a fabric top.
So much for the official figures. This CLK GTR Coupé, which is now being driven by SML CarGroup in Stuttgart and comes from the collection of our friends at the National Automobile Museum – The Loh Collection, is not one of the 20 models mentioned above. The vehicle is the prototype of this small series and therefore almost priceless.
It is, of course, quite extraordinary to be driving this speedster through Stuttgart in rush hour traffic. The route takes us through the city center, past the MHP Arena and on to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. A perfect backdrop for this special vehicle.
After a good four hours, the vehicle is back safely at the SML CarGroup in Eberdingen, where it will be looked after alongside other vehicles from the best national and international private collections before returning home to the National Automobile Museum sometime in the next few weeks. What an exciting day!
