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Thread: Mercedes CLR-GT1 99 'Flies' Again!

  1. #1
    Senior Member CurtEgerer's Avatar
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    Mercedes CLR-GT1 99 'Flies' Again!

    Remember this one - the CLR that took off like an airplane at LeMans in 1999? That was it's first and last outing, never to be seen again. Until last weekend's Modena Track Day at Nurburgring It appears to be owned by a privateer which is amazing to me - would M-B sell a car with a known aero problem? Anyway, awesome looking car.

    Video: CLR-GT1 99 Accident at LM
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  2. #2
    Senior Member John Z Goriup's Avatar
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    With few exceptions, which are are owned by Porsche and exhibited in the museum, most 917s are owned by privateers and raced......talk about a car with known aero problems , known frame fatigue problems, stability problems.
    It was called the "widowmaker" for ****'s sake.

    In vintage racing you never push the cars anywhere near the point the werks did when they raced them in anger back in the day, a lot of them have been modified to house-break them for use by civilians......and you'll never even get anywhere near even sniffing ownership of a car that recent without a lot of lawyers having been involved.

    Ferrari, for instance, sells most of their F1 cars of the previous season, but the engines are greatly detuned and only operated during scheduled race-weekends with other Ferrari F1 owners, and with factory mechanics in attendance and in complete charge of the cars set-up(s).

    Brian Redman makes his living arranging among other motosport events, vintage F-1 meets worldwide, featuring cars from the era that usually killed 3 or 4 of the best drivers annually. Everyone is fully aware what deathtraps those things were, but they go into it with both eyes wide open and practice restraint and self discipline when on the track with others.... if not you're out, period. Permanently. These are historic treasures and nobody wants to break them, and if you violate that universal covenant of vintage racing associations you'll not race again.......pure & simple.

    No, I don't think the manufacturers are taking much of a chance selling cars " with a certain reputation" to civilians with money. They protect themselves adequately just for that reason, so they can sell them to the public, everybody enjoys the sounds, the sights, the smells, and the manufacturers offeset a small portion of the cost of their racing programs.
    Before it became Ruprecht, my Porsche was a '70 911 T



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  3. #3
    Senior Member Jim Garfield's Avatar
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    Aww, you could even take it back to LM without problems now that they've shaved the crest off of the Mulsanne take off ramp.
    '74 leichtbau
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  4. #4
    Senior Member Varooom's Avatar
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    Mark Webber wins todays F1 in Germany.

    I thought I would add that since he was on the 'flippin' Lemans Mercedes Team back in '99.
    Steve Var.
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