Tag Archives: gt1

CLK GTR GT1

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1997 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR GT1

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | March 2024

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

This is, ostensibly, the racing variant of Mercedes’ C208 CLK-Class. Except that the true racing variant of the C208 was the CLK DTM. The GTR was an entirely different animal, sharing just the “CLK” name and a loose interpretation of the front grille and headlights. The CLK GTR was so extreme that it had to be homologated as its own thing, of which 20 road-going coupes and six roadsters were built. They were the most expensive new cars in the world when they were sold in the late ’90s/early ’00s.

The racing versions were pretty special as well. Initially campaigned in the 1997 FIA GT Championship, the cars proved somewhat successful and were replaced by the CLK LM by the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans and later by the doomed CLR for 1999.

Power is provided by a 6.0-liter V12 that made 600 horsepower, and the competition history for this chassis (004) includes:

  • 1997 FIA GT 4 Hours of Nurburgring – 1st (with Bernd Schneider and Klaus Ludwig)
  • 1997 FIA GT 4 Hours of Spa – 2nd (with Schneider and Alexander Wurz)
  • 1997 FIA GT 1000km Suzuka – 7th (with Schneider, Wurz, and Aguri Suzuki)
  • 1997 FIA GT 3 Hours of Sebring – 1st (with Schneider and Ludwig)

It was sold by Mercedes-Benz to its current and only private owner in 2015. It’s a pretty big deal from a golden era of GT racing – this car competed against McLaren F1 GTRs and Porsche 911 GT1s, etc. The action closes on this one in two days. Find out more here.

Koenigsegg GT1

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2007 Koenigsegg CCGT GT1

Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | July 14, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

The Koenigsegg CCX was introduced in 2006 as the company’s third-ish model. The company decided they wanted to go GT racing around this time, so they developed this, the CCGT GT1. It was aimed at the FIA’s GT1 class in their GT Championship. This would’ve put it up against the likes of Chevy’s C6.R, the Aston Martin DB9R, and the Maserati MC12 GT1.

It’s powered by a 5.0-liter V8 that made over 600 horsepower. It also had a carbon-fiber monocoque – which the FIA outlawed for the upcoming season shortly after this car debuted, thus rendering it illegal and immediately obsolete. The FIA also then stipulated that 350 road cars had to be produced to homologate the car for racing. I’m not sure Koenigsegg has produced 350 cars to date, total. It’s like the FIA wants to keep their fields small and uninteresting.

So this was the only example built. One of Koenigsegg’s shareholders took the car home, and has had it ever since. Now it’s coming up for sale for the first time with an estimate of $3,750,000-$5,000,000. More info can be found here.

Update: Sold $4,267,570.

Lister Storm GT1

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2001 Lister Storm GT1

Offered by Bonhams | Chichester, U.K. | July 5, 2019

Photo – Bonhams

Here we go! I’m an unabashed fan of the Lister Storm road car, which only exists because Lister wanted to go racing in the top GT classes at Le Mans and the FIA GT Championship. It competed against truly ludicrous competitors like the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR, Porsche 911 GT1, and McLaren F1 GTR.

Only three road cars still exist, and only six racing cars (or GTMs) were built to varying specifications depending on what class they were being entered in. Power is from a 7.0-liter Jaguar V12 good for 546 horsepower. The competition history for this car (#005) includes:

  • 2002 24 Hours of Spa – 2nd (with Bobby Verdon-Roe, Miguel de Castro, David Sterckx, and Justin Law)
  • 2002 FIA GT Championship – 2nd

The car entered privateer hands after that, competing in the French GT Championship, where it was crashed and rebuilt with the chassis from car #001. The damaged chassis is included in this sale.

This rare GT1 racer is a brute and should sell for between $570,000-$690,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $583,311.

Sbarro GT1

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1999 Sbarro GT1

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | February 9, 2018

Photo – Artcurial

Here is a one-off supercar from the wacky world of Franco Sbarro. The purpose of this car was to pay tribute to the awesome Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and the car you see here actually wears a Mercedes emblem up front.

Part of the reason for that is that it is Mercedes-powered. It has a 7.4-liter Mercedes-Benz V-8 making 450 horsepower. It’s sleek and light which means it is reportedly capable of 201 mph and sprinting to 60 in just 4.9 seconds.

If this looks a little like a car designed by committee, keep in mind two things: 1. Sbarro runs a school for automotive design called Sbarro Espera and this car was designed as part of the school’s experience and 2. when examined closely this car looks really well put-together. It was first shown at the Geneva Motor Show and purchased off the Sbarro stand. It’s a legitimate one-of-one supercar with the looks and performance to back it up. It should sell for between $120,000-$240,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $116,816.

Callaway C7R GT1

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1997 Callaway C7R GT1

Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 24, 2014

1997 Callaway C7R GT1

In 1997 Reeves Callaway wanted to go racing. In order to enter the GT1 category (the top class at the time) – which was based on production sports cars – Callaway would have to have built road-going examples of whatever they wanted to race. Unfortunately, they never got around to the road car part.

But they did built two GT1 racing prototypes (both of which are said to be easily adaptable to a road car – it does have two seats, after all). They failed to qualify for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but did race in the 1997 24 Hours of Daytona – and managed to find themselves leading at the halfway point before the car broke. It’s lone competition outing was:

  • 1997 24 Hours of Daytona – 54th, DNF (with Boris Said, Johnny Unser, Ron Fellows, and Enrico Bertaggia)

The car uses a mid-mounted Corvette-based 6.3-liter V8 making 640 horsepower. The car is all-Callaway and not lifted from a Corvette as is the case with most other Callaways. This is an awesome performance car that was ultimately forced out of competition for lack of road cars. It is one of only two built and is seriously cool. It should sell for between $275,000-$350,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Mecum’s Kissimmee lineup.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $150,000.

Ascari FGT Race Car

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1995 Ascari FGT-GT1

Offered by Coys | Birmingham, U.K. | January 11, 2014

1995 Ascari FGT-GT1

Ascari is one of those little boutique automobile manufacturers that could’ve gone out of business five years ago and no one would’ve known. Apparently they are still in business but the company can trace its roots back to this car.

Lee Noble designed the FGT (he now builds cars under his own name) and it took about five years to actually get the thing built. This racing version was built for company owner Klaas Zwart to compete in the British GT Championship. He won one race at Silverstone. It also raced in 1996 and 1997 before being mothballed back at Ascari HQ.

Fast forward to 2009 when the car was completely rebuilt by an ex-Ascari team member to 1997 race spec. The car is being offered with spares as well. Only 17 road-going versions of the FGT were built (few if any remain). And only one race-going GT1 version was produced by the factory. This is that car. It should sell for between $100,000-$115,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Coys in Birmingham.

Update: Sold $108,000.

Porsche 911 GT1 Roadcar

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1998 Porsche 911 GT1 Straßenversion

Offered by RM Auctions | Monterey, California | August 18, 2012

Photo – RM Auctions

Remember a week or so ago when we talked about the late-90s homologation specials that were thinly disguised race cars made street legal by some soft tuning and modification, namely the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR? Well you’re looking at its biggest competitor, the Porsche 911 GT1. This is the rarest supercar Porsche has ever made. And it is glorious.

The race version of the CLK GTR never won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Porsche, however, did – taking the top two spots on the podium in 1998. We actually featured a 911 GT1 Evo a few months ago when it came up for sale. But, in order to race these ridiculous “GT” cars, Porsche was required to build road-going examples, just as Mercedes and McLaren did.

The first road car was delivered in 1997. It featured a detuned version of the race car’s 3.2-liter twin-turbo flat-6, making 544 horsepower. The car could do 194 mph and hit 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. The base price was a very Porsche-sounding $912,000. This particular car is believed to be the only registered 911 GT1 road car in the United States. Approximately 25 were built in total (how no one knows the exact number is a little disheartening as Porsche is a reputable company and they are German, thus they are, stereotypically, supposed to be organized and on top of such things).

If you want to own the rarest of rare Porsches with performance and outrageous looks equaled by very few cars, then this one’s for you. Show up at any Porsche show with it and even people with 959s and Carrera GTs will be staring at their shoes in embarrassment of having “just another production Porsche.” The price is expected to be in the $1,250,000-$1,400,000 range. For more information, click here. And for more from RM in Monterey, click here.

Update: Sold $1,175,000.

Update II: Sold, Gooding & Company, Amelia Island 2017, $5,665,000.

Porsche 911 GT1 Evo

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1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Evolution

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 9, 2012

Photo – Gooding & Company

The Drendel Family Collection of Porsches that Gooding & Company are offering at Amelia Island this year is pretty amazing. The number of competition cars alone is staggering. But of all of them – yes, including the 917/30 we featured last week – this is the one that I want most, granted the street version (yes, they built a GT1 road car) would be even more incredible.

The McLaren F1 won overall at the 1995 24 Hours of LeMans. When Porsche saw this, they said, “Why not us?” Thus they built a prototype race car, seen here, and then added a few road car variants (supposedly 25) to make it legal as a GT1 car. In 1996 they won their class, finishing 2nd and 3rd overall.

1997 was even more competitive with new entries from Mercedes-Benz and Panoz. The 911 GT1 was slightly reworked and dubbed the GT1 Evolution. The car being offered here (chassis #993-GT1-004) was entered with drivers Bob Wolleck, Hans Stuck, and Thierry Bousten. A few hours past halfway, Wolleck spun and crashed and the car was out of the race. The sister car later retired with three hours to go. While this car never won an outright race during its competition history, it was still a serious competitor, placing 3rd at Laguna Seca in its final factory-backed race.

Underneath the rear body work sits a 3.2 liter twin-turbo Flat-6 making around 600 horsepower. On the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans it was capable of about 205 mph.

There were some great sports-prototype race cars campaigned in the late 1990s. This is one of them. And while I wait for a “Straßenversion” to come up for sale, I guess I will have to settle for this race version with a pre-sale estimate of $900,000-$1,200,000.

Photo – Gooding & Company

For the complete catalog description, click here and for the rest of the Gooding lineup for tomorrow’s auction, click here.

Update: Sold $1,265,000.