The Want Is Strong With This Rare Race-Derived Mercedes CLK

The AMG back catalogue is to car enthusiasts what Cadbury World is to ‘bubbly’ people, and next month one of the German tyre-smoker’s most awesome treats of yesteryear is coming up for auction.

Feast your eyes on this immaculate CLK DTM AMG; one of just 40 right-hand drive versions ever made and with fewer than 10,000 miles on the clock since its first registration in 2006.

It’s up for sale with Historics, who also supplied these images. It’s undoubtedly the star attraction at the 130-something lot auction on November 26, with an estimate of between £210,000 and £250,000.

The DTM was a special edition coupé built for the road out of the bones of the full racing-spec 209 CLK DTM that raced in the ultra-competitive German DTM racing series. Originally priced at the equivalent of around £161,000 when launched, it sold out as soon as 40 gibbering rich people had collected themselves enough to throw their wallets at their local dealer.

Under the Mr Universe bodywork lies a supercharged 5.4-litre V8 producing 574bhp and as many torques as it takes to turn the rear tyres into mush before you finish reading this sentence. It smashed the 0-60mph sprint in a most likely terrifying 3.8 seconds thanks to the long ratios in the five-speed auto gearbox, and top speed was limited(!) to 200mph.

This one was actually registered to a Singapore-based owner from new, but has recently been officially imported to the UK and has all the necessary paperwork. The old speedometer was replaced with a British miles-per-hour unit correct to the DTM model, and the mileage was adjusted to exactly reflect the kilometres previously covered.

The carbonfibre- and Alcantara-festooned interior is in fantastic condition. We really wouldn’t mind parking our backsides in it for an afternoon. The want is strong.