From the first strikes of pencil upon paper, to the final few inches of factory driver Bernd Schneider’s initial test lap at Jarama Circuit on 27 March 1997, it took just 128 days for Mercedes-Benz Motorsport and AMG to create their all-conquering CLK GTR, a brand-new racing sports car with immediate championship-winning pedigree.

It proved so dominant that it effectively caused the collapse of the FIA GT1 series for which it was designed, and so well engineered that it remains one of the most highly revered racing sport car designs of the modern era. The incredible story of this model and its brief but laurel-guided career is undoubtedly one of the wildest tales in all of modern sports; not motorsports—but all sports.

Yet what truly separates the story of the Mercedes-AMG racing team’s 1997 and 1998 FIA GT1 accomplishments from every other group of notable sports enterprises of the last 25 years is that their goal was not just victory. Their true objective was total domination; a very public, week-by-week humiliation of its rival manufacturers, namely Porsche, BMW, and McLaren, through unabating mechanical supremacy. And in the span of only 541 days, they achieved this and more.

Offered here is the most esteemed instrument by which Mercedes-Benz announced their reign of dominance to the world: the 1997 FIA GT1 Championship-winning Mercedes-AMG CLK GTR GT1, chassis 004.

In the capable hands of legendary Mercedes-AMG driver Bernd Schneider, chassis 004 was stirred to four victories, two additional podiums, five poles, and five fastest laps over the 11 rounds of the 1997 FIA GT1 season. Poignantly, it is the exact ‘Silver Arrow’ that delivered Schneider his 1997 Drivers’ Championship and the Constructors’ Championship for Mercedes-AMG.

It—quite indisputably—finds itself comfortably seated within the highest echelon of collectible sports racing cars of the modern era and is without reproach one of the most significant privately-owned ‘Silver Arrows’ from Mercedes-Benz’s long and storied history of motorsports triumphs.

RETURN OF THE SILVER ARROW

Mercedes-Benz has left a more significant imprint on motorsports history than any other manufacturer, bar none—from the early successes of the pre-merger companies Daimler and Benz to the record-setting interwar supercharged ‘Silver Arrows’, to the post-war period’s dominating W196 Formula One and 300 SLR racecars, up through the outstanding Sauber-Mercedes’ models which conquered Le Mans, and ending at today’s seven-time F1 Constructors’ Champion Mercedes-AMG.

So it came as little surprise that after decades of relative abstention from factory-based competition, the Stuttgart-based automaker became a commanding winner in the German DTM series in the 1990s with its potent AMG-built 190 E and subsequent C-Class racers. These cars were so unbeatable between 1994 and 1996 that the competition was literally forced to walk away, with both Opel and Alfa Romeo withdrawing from the series. Thriving on the company’s newfound success, Mercedes-Benz executives wanted to continue its racing activities, but the proper venue remained a question.

The answer came in the form of a new racing series sponsored by the FIA for 1997, the FIA GT Championship. With its very relaxed formula, this two-class series allowed for large-displacement GT1 cars that required a minimum homologation of just 25 examples, and their build would prove to closely approximate the prototype racecars they were to run up against in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

However, to entice manufacturers further, the FIA modified its own GT1 homologation rules to state that only one road car and one racecar were required by April 1997, with production of the remaining 24 road cars to be underway within 12 months of the season’s final race.

Panoz, Toyota, Lotus, and Lister all announced factory-backed teams for the series’ inaugural 1997 season, but Mercedes-AMG’s most formidable targets were the works entries from Porsche Motorsport, McLaren, and BMW (Bigazzi McLaren).

FROM PEN TO POLE POSITION

Mercedes-AMG rose to this task with a lightning-fast development program. Distilling the incredible pressures exerted by Daimler’s management team into a functional and record-breaking process for this new racing sports car project were three key figures: Chief of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Norbert Haug, AMG head Hans Werner Aufrecht, and Domingos Piedade, director of the joint Mercedes-AMG racing team.

Between 6 December 1996 and 27 March 1997, the CLK GTR was brought from the drawing board to the pavement. An additional twelve days would see it grab its FIA GT1 homologation and first pole position.

Although Mercedes-AMG staff worked incredibly long hours to complete the car on time, its astounding development timeline was fast-tracked by the heavy use of state-of-the-art CAD programs and a clever ruse cooked up by Norbert Haug. In early 1997, a shell company was formed by Mercedes-Benz Motorsport to clandestinely lease a McLaren F1 GTR (chassis 11R) from the French privateer team Larbre Competition. Over the next ninety days, this McLaren mule was thoroughly modified with prototype bodywork and mechanicals to be included on the upcoming CLK GTR, whose composite chassis was being completed in the UK by Lola. By the time 011R appeared to a select group of journalists at Spain’s Jarama Circuit on 10 March 1997, it had effectively been transformed into a CLK GTR in disguise.

At approximately the same time, the other two components of AMG’s three-pronged racing campaign were in full swing: the American CART series kicked off in Homestead, Florida on 2 March, and the new McLaren-Mercedes MP4-12 made its debut at the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Melbourne, Australia on 9 March, where its victory marked the first win of a Silver Arrow since 1955. AMG, however, saved the best for last, as its mechanics worked around the clock on their most impressive product to date. Finally, only 128 days after the first sketches were conceived on paper, the very first complete racing chassis CLK GTR took to the track at Jarama on 27 March 1997.

Mercedes veteran Bernd Schneider, along with AMG’s young gun, Alexander Wurz, tested the car with extremely successful results. Norbert Haug immediately called Hans Werner Aufrecht from the pits at the Brazilian Grand Prix to see how testing was proceeding in Spain. In what remains perhaps the greatest use of hyperbole in the history of automobile racing, Mr. Aufrecht, grinning, famously understated the car’s performance by declaring, ‘Er fährt . . . sieht gut aus’ (‘It runs…and looks good’).

BENEATH THE SKIN

The CLK GTR’s monocoque chassis utilizes a central carbon-fiber composite and honeycomb aluminium tub mounted with carbon-fibre body panels and a stressed-member powertrain design, which sees all major components mated directly to the tub. Power is derived from the ‘LS600/M297’ a racing evolution of Mercedes’ contemporaneous six-liter M120 V-12 blueprint, which has been updated with a bevy of magnesium castings, as well as titanium connecting rods and a 12.0:1 compression ratio.

In racing specification complete with its FIA-mandated restrictors, this engine produces approximately 600 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque to thrust the CLK GTR to 60 mph from a standstill in just 3.8 seconds, with an impressive top speed of 205 mph at some tracks. In its unrestricted form, Mercedes-AMG engineers reported peak performance in excess of 800 horsepower, and the ‘sprint’ fuel map used during competition made approximately 670 horsepower available.

Gear changes are routed through an Xtrac six-speed sequential transmission, with ratio sets having been changed each weekend to suit the circuit. The suspension design includes front and rear double-wishbone suspension with pull-rod coil springs, adjustable shock absorbers, and six-piston brakes with enormous carbon-composite rotors; a set of sensors in each wheel measure brake-lock and tire slip, with this information relayed to the driver by a clever suite of dashboard lights.

CLK GTR CHASSIS 004: SCHNEIDER’S SILVER ARROW

Chassis 004, offered here, is one of the first two examples of the racing CLK GTR completed by Mercedes-AMG and campaigned in the 1997 FIA GT1 season.

Its competitive life reportedly began in a most interesting way, when it was presented to the FIA Head of Constructors Gabriel Katringer on 1 April 1997 for the model’s official homologation approval inspection…as a road car! Because the first race took place on the weekend-after-next, and only two racing cars were ready (004 and 006), it was decided to ‘convert’ one of them into a road car. They simply had no time to construct an actual road car; and, so, it is believed that chassis 004 was cleverly fitted with a hastily made interior, painted silver, freed of its massive rear wing, and fitted with the AMG fleet plate ‘LB-RA 100’.

Photos in the model’s official FIA homologation forms (on file) clearly show a racing fuel filler, sequential gear-selector, bizarre interior, unique rear wing, racing engine, and profiled wheel arches—all clear giveaways that Katringer had been shown a disguised racecar and not a road-going CLK GTR. AMG later constructed its first road-going prototype in time for a public unveiling at September’s Frankfurt Motor Show.

With the ruse complete and their FIA GT1 approval in hand, the team’s focus shifted back to racing. Chassis 004 was duly converted back to its proper racing specification over the next week, just in time for the season’s inaugural racing weekend on 13 April at Hockenheim, Mercedes-AMG’s ‘home’ circuit. None of the team’s rivals had yet seen this new car running, and just about everyone in the Hockenheim paddock watched with bated breath as each of the team’s two racing chassis completed their practice and then qualifying sessions.

Wurz and Schneider were assigned to this car, wearing the number 11 livery and yellow mirrors, while Alessandro Nannini and Marcel Tiemann had been directed to chassis 006, with its number 10 livery and blue mirrors. Schneider stunned everyone by putting chassis 004 on pole position, and Nannini put forth a more calculated approach by qualifying fifth.

Norbert Haug immediately tempered everyone’s enthusiasm about the 128-day-wondercar by stating that ‘Winning the first race is not a realistic goal’. He was sadly proven right as chassis 004’s master brake cylinder experienced a catastrophic failure during Schneider’s fourth lap of the race. By the time Schneider reached the pits, the car’s front wheels had locked up entirely, and it was dragged into the garage. At least for now, McLaren and its F1 still reigned supreme.

The CLK GTR’s teething problems continued through the next two rounds at Silverstone and Helsinki, although Schneider and Wurz’s stunning performance at Silverstone on 11 May was the first real sense of the CLK GTR’s true potential. Starting from pole for the 2nd consecutive time, they drove a tremendous race through the wet. The race was cut short by a red flag just moments before Bernd Schneider had passed the works-backed McLaren of JJ Lehto and Steve Soper to take the lead. In the initial confusion of the race’s finish, both the Schnitzer BMW-McLaren and Mercedes-AMG garages celebrated as if they had won, though the FIA quickly determined that Schneider’s pass was invalid, and he had finished in second, 0.6 seconds behind Lehto.

McLaren and BMW had again won the day, but now they were sweating. Meanwhile, Porsche’s 911 GT1 was still considerably off the pace, and would continue as a third-party to the title race for the remainder of the 1997 season.

The season’s third round at Helsinki on 25 May presented a disappointing 8th overall finish for this car, although Schneider did secure third on the grid behind its sister car and the Soper/Lehto McLaren. Towards the end of the race, Schneider even managed to set the fastest lap during his crazed charge back up the order, but it was all too-little-too-late following an earlier, shameful collision that saw the 2nd-place Wurz torpedoed into the barriers by the back marker Gulf McLaren of Thomas Bscher. With their latest victory, the Schnitzer BMW-McLaren team now seemed poised, at least superficially, to claim the GT1 championship in a cake walk, provided that the CLK GTR’s mechanical problems and poor luck would continue.

If McLaren had truly paid any attention to Wurz’s pace or Schneider’s ascent back up the order following chassis 004’s repairs, they would have noticed that their GT1 championship hopes had already slipped through their fingers.

Mercedes-AMG’s reign of dominance was about to begin.

The CLK GTR had arrived, and now it just needed to win.

NÜRBURGRING TO LAGUNA SECA

Schneider and Wurz’s arrival at the season’s fourth round was initially overshadowed by the team’s introduction of a third entry, the number 12 CLK GTR (red mirrors, chassis 005) assigned to veteran sports car drivers Klaus Ludwig and Bernd Mayländer. But the buzz subsided shortly after Schneider put this car on pole position for the third time, and the primacy of chassis 004 was all but cemented when Mayländer buried the number 12 into the barriers. For his part, Ludwig was substituted into Wurz’s stint with chassis 004, and together Schneider and Ludwig ran to their first victory, far-and-away from everyone else. Their blistering pace was only marginally contested by the number 10 sister car of Nannini and Tiemann, which finished 2nd at a gap of nearly 80 seconds. The nearest McLarens fought each other to be ‘best-of-the-rest’.

With this stunning 1-2 victory, a Silver Arrow of Mercedes-Benz had won its first sports car race since 1990, when Michael Schumacher and Jochen Mass’s Sauber C11 had won the 480 Kilometers of Mexico City.

Schneider had now taken this CLK GTR to the top, and he fully intended to remain there.

At Belgium’s famously difficult and mercurial Spa-Francorchamps Circuit on 20 July, Schneider started third on the grid before handing his race lead over to Wurz just as the rain started to pour down. During Wurz’s stint, he retained the car in 2nd behind the Lehto/Soper McLaren. Taking over, Schneider then stormed through the track during the event’s final hour, gobbling up second-after-second from Lehto’s one-minute lead. In the end, Schneider fell just short of victory, though his astounding pace was worrying enough for McLaren; chassis 004’s final gap to Soper had been whittled down to just 15 seconds. The six points Schneider earned for his incredible runner-up drive kept him in contention for the drivers’ title behind Soper and Lehto. Mercedes-AMG’s standing in the Constructors’ title was further bolstered with Ludwig’s fifth overall finish in the number 12 car.

Rounds 5 (Spielberg) and 6 (Suzuka) of the 1997 championship saw Schneider start each race with this car and then ‘swapped’—with Domingos Piedade’s approval—into the leading Mercedes-AMG entry during each respective race to keep himself in contention for the drivers’ title. This extremely controversial loophole in the regulations was subsequently closed in time for round 7 at Donington, but both Schneider’s victories as a driver at Spielberg and Suzuka were upheld.

At Spielberg on 3 August, Schneider and Nannini’s cars locked out the top row of the grid. Once again, Schneider handed over chassis 004 to the young hot-shot Wurz as race leader, only this time Schneider did not return, as he instead drove chassis 005 to victory. Wurz battled tooth and nail in chassis 004 to finish 4th overall, sandwiched between a pair of factory-backed McLarens.

The 1000kms of Suzuka on 24 August brought Bernd Schneider’s final qualifying result outside the top two. Shortly into his 2nd-place stint, Alexander Wurz suffered a rear suspension failure. Subsequent repairs took less time than expected, but upon his return from the pits, Wurz and chassis 004 were running in 10th place, a whole three laps down from the race-leading GTR of Klaus Ludwig. Schneider’s place in the car was then taken by local guest driver and ex-F1 man Aguri Suzuki, who deftly managed to place chassis 004 into 7th place at the checkered flag. Schneider took victory in chassis 006, adding 10 points to his championship tally in the process.

Entering Donington on 14 September, Mercedes-AMG and Schnitzer BMW-McLaren were tied neck-and-neck for the Constructors’ title, while Bernd Schneider found himself just three points shy of Lehto and Soper in the Drivers’ Championship. It proved to be the crucial moment of the entire 1997 season, and no tandem of man-and-machine could touch Schneider, Wurz, or chassis 004 that day.

From pole, Schneider quickly buried the field behind him. Wurz never looked back, and he probably could have done just fine without any errors as the pairing claimed the race’s fastest lap and a dominant lead to finish 51-seconds ahead of Marcel Tiemann’s second-place car. Another 1-2-4 finish brought the Silver Arrows well past McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship, while Bernd Schneider now found himself top of the drivers’ standings for the first time.

Mugello formed a stellar start for the Silver Arrows, with positions 1-2-3 all secured on the grid. But disaster struck when the pole-sitter and race-leading Schneider was t-boned by the GT2-class Krauss Porsche of Bernhard Muller. Chassis 004 retired shortly thereafter with damage, and, just like that, Lehto and Soper regained their lead in the championship with a comfortable win despite a late charge from Nannini and Tiemann.

Chassis 004 was repaired in time for the series’ final two rounds, for which Schneider was to be paired with Klaus Ludwig at Sebring on 19 October, and the following weekend at Laguna Seca.

Excellent qualifying sessions by both Nannini and Schneider locked out Sebring’s front row with chassis 06 and 04, respectively. A wall of rain soon flooded the track, and despite several calls for the red flag, the race continued unabated by a wave of retirements, spins, and collisions. Schneider and Ludwig put forth a tremendous drive amidst such treacherous conditions, and they punched through the wet to take the checkered flag a full 78-seconds ahead of Roberto Ravaglia and his number 9 Works BMW-McLaren.

The heavy rain which soaked the Sebring circuit was not enough to extinguish a violent fire which suddenly exploded from JJ Lehto’s McLaren, which in turn signaled the smoldering wreckage of BMW’s hopes to wrestle back the Constructors’ cup from Mercedes-AMG, and the Drivers’ Championship from Bernd Schneider. Schneider and Chassis 004 now sat well and truly ‘top-of-the-table’—and for Schneider, this was to be a position which he would not relinquish until the end of the following GT1 season.

The 1997 season’s finale at Laguna Seca played witness to another weekend of Silver Arrow dominance with Schneider, in chassis 004, starting the race alongside pole-sitter Alexander Wurz. In Ludwig and Schneider’s capable hands, this CLK GTR was maintained in 2nd place for most of the race behind the Porsche 911 GT1 of surprise antihero Allan McNish and Ralf Kelleners. But the Porsche simply could not keep up against Schneider’s pace, and a brilliant pit strategy by the team undercut the Porsche, thereby thrusting Schneider and chassis 004 into the lead, which he confidently maintained through the checkered flag to take both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ GT1 Championships!

Showers of champagne rained down upon the sandy soil of Laguna Seca’s infield; Mercedes-AMG had achieved their goal. Their dominance was now firmly established, and to the watching world, it was Bernd Schneider and this number 11 CLK GTR which reestablished the return of the Silver Arrows in sports car racing. Over the eleven rounds of the 1997 season, chassis 004 strung up an incredible racing record of four victories, two additional podiums, five poles, and five fastest laps. Even more impressive, this car suffered only two retirements, neither of which came from powertrain failures.

1998 AND LATER HISTORY

Once the euphoria of victory had dispersed, Mercedes-AMG returned to the drawing board in preparation for their title defense in the FIA GT1’s 1998 season. BMW, humiliated, pulled themselves from the series which they had hoped to win in an easy stroll, while Porsche remained, developing an entirely new car to more closely define their upcoming Le Mans effort—the 911 GT1-98. Mercedes-AMG would follow suit with their own new entry for the 1998 season, created in the same vein as this new Porsche, the V-8-powered CLK LM. But with the LM’s development a tad off the pace for completion by the start of the season, the team tasked their trio of seasoned CLK GTR chassis (004, 005, 006) with mounting the first two defenses to open the season; at Oschersleben on 12 April, and Silverstone on 17 May. Meanwhile, two additional CLK GTR chassis were constructed and sold to the semi-works Mercedes-AMG affiliate Persson Motorsport.

Chassis 004 arrived in its familiar D2 Privat livery at the new Oschersleben circuit adorned with the imposing mark of a champion—a symbol known to all racers as the universal indication of ‘the man to beat’; the number one. With defending champion Bernd Schneider now paired with rising Formula 3 star Mark Webber, chassis 004’s yellow mirrors were fifth-fastest through qualifying, behind the pair of factory-run 911 GT1-98s and two of its CLK GTR sister cars. Schneider quickly punched up to second place, but a disastrous pit stop delivered him back to the circuit with more than one lap down behind teammate and eventual race-winner Ricardo Zonta.

But it was all sterling from flag-to-flag; in the end, Mercedes-AMG’s formidable Silver Arrows locked out the podium with an incredible 1-2-3 finish to start this new season. This outstanding result marked chassis 004’s third podium.

Having completed their first title defense with flying colors, the CLK GTR’s last and final display of competitive dominance occurred at Silverstone’s British Empire Trophy race on 17 May. From 5th, Schneider and Webber stirred chassis 004 onto a convincing, ebullient victory. Schneider’ final stint in the car was highlighted by his careful gap management until the penultimate lap, when, chased by the runner-up Porsche of Altzen and Muller and looking to lap the third-place Porsche of Bartels and Hahne, he cranked the fuel map to sprint mode, rushed past Bartels, and crossed the finish line in a shower of pilsner and Mercedes-Benz flags.

Whether unplanned or not, Mercedes-AMG eventually elected to debut the CLK LM during the third round of the 1998 season. This fortuitous step forward took place upon the same hallowed ground which they had revealed the CLK GTR—their home circuit—Hockenheim, on 26 June 1998. The remaining rounds of the 1998 FIA GT1 Championship played court to another outrageously dominant series of victories for Mercedes-AMG and their CLK LM. The team ran undefeated for the entirety of the season, scoring six 1-2 finishes en route to their second consecutive team championship, as well as the Drivers’ Championship shared by young gun Ricardo Zonta and veteran sports car ace Klaus Ludwig.

Following its succession by the updated CLK LM racecar, chassis 004 was subsequently retained within Mercedes-Benz’s own corporate collection for the next 17 years. While with Mercedes-Benz, this famous Championship-winning Silver Arrow made notable appearances at the July 1998 FIA GT1 race in Dijon, where it was—rather cheekily—parked in the paddock next to the sole road-going CLK LM example. Mercedes-AMG did not repeat their homologation ruse from 1997, and, true to their word, the small series of CLK GTR examples had already begun production at Hans Werner Aufrecht’s newly minted vehicle construction firm HWA AG.

More recently, it was run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Techno Classica, as well as having regular appearances on display at the company’s own museum.

In July 2015, due to a unique set of circumstances that undoubtedly will not be repeated, the consignor was permitted to purchase chassis 004, a world-championship winning car, directly from Mercedes-Benz’s own collection. A true milestone automobile and significant piece of Mercedes-Benz history, it is worthy to note that a certificate from Mercedes-Benz provided to the consignor states: ‘It is proven that the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR with the Chassis No.-Nr. 297397WA000004 is the car that won the FIA-GT-Championship in 1997’. Having been driven by Bernd Schneider in every round of the championship, this car played a pivotal role in securing him the FIA GT Drivers’ Championship in 1997, as well as securing the team championship for AMG-Mercedes.

Chassis 004 was fully sorted by HWA AG just prior to consignor’s purchase, and work orders (on file) substantiate a significant degree of mechanical care taken to prepare it for its new home.

Sans for a widely acclaimed showing at the 2019 edition of the exclusive Chantilly Concours d’Elegance, chassis 004 has remained sparingly used at test days with the current owner and has been an important fixture within his outstanding collection of world-class sports-racing cars. Accompanying the car is an original seat and double lap belts (to accommodate faster driver changes) used in period by Mark Webber, along with a diagnostic laptop.

Undoubtedly the most successful of the CLK GTR from the 1997 FIA GT1 season, chassis 004 represents an unrepeatable opportunity to acquire one of the most significant cars from Mercedes-Benz’s illustrious history.