The Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR and the Lamborghini Reventon made their way back to Forza Motorsport's Update 10 and having won these two timeless exotics, it's time to have a word with them.
Let's begin with the Lamborghini Reventon that I won by completing Update 10's Open Tour until the August 14, 2024 deadline.
Unveiled at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show and limited to 20 units, costing about two million dollars each, the Reventon is one of the rarest and most unique Lamborghini models ever made, using some of the components from the Murcielago LP640. It was named after a fighting bull famed for the death of Mexican bullfighter Felix Guzman in 1943 and heavily inspired the design of the fighter jet.
The 6.5L V12 derived from the LP640 Murcielago gave a 10HP boost, therefore it has 650HP of power and 660Nm of torque. When it was driven somewhere in Dubai, it achieved 356 kilometers per hour (221.2 mph) of top speed.
Of 20 made, 10 were delivered to the United States, 7 to Europe, 1 to Canada, and 2 to Asia. Notable owners include Khalid Abdul Rahim of Bahrain, Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, and Ken Lingenfelter who is a car collector in Michigan.
Lastly, let's get to know the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR, the one that I got from Update 10's Nemesis Tour until the August 28, 2024 deadline.
Introduced in 1997, the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR is a GT1-class racing machine that is made to compete in the FIA GT Championship. A year later, it spawned its road-legal homologated equivalent. Powering the road car is a 6.9L V12 engine that produces 604HP of power, making it capable of going from 0-60mph in 3.8 seconds and has a top speed of 198mph.
Only 26 road cars were made and sold, making it one of the most exclusive and desirable Mercedes-Benz models ever produced. 20 were coupes and 6 were roadsters. Two of them, a coupe and a roadster, were RHD models built for the 29th Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. The other two coupes left the factory with SuperSport specifications powered by the 7.3L V12 engine that would later power the Pagani Zonda.
Let's take these two iconic supercars for a quick spin around South Africa's Kyalami GP Circuit. We'll see how fast they can go and how much power they have.
These cars really are in a class of their own. They are unrivaled from the way they look to the way they feel.
The Mercedes-AMG GT is one of the most dramatic sports cars the high-performance division has ever made and with all that motorsport knowhow derived from its F1 team after one consecutive win after another in two Formula One seasons, it seems that Mercedes really made a well-balanced sportscar that ticks all the right boxes, apart from some people who believed that the AMG GT is not worthy of being a bonafide halo car Mercedes made.
As a matter of fact, let's look back at some of the best halo cars Mercedes ever made while driving around the GP Circuit part of the Nurburgring because the stuff I do on track takes less than five minutes while the stuff I do in the Nurburgring Nordschleife took about either seven, eight, nine, maybe ten, perhaps unless some actions need to be taken to capture such moments.
Let's start with the Mercedes CLK-GTR, basically a road-legal version of the CLK-GTR whose original track version became a threat in the ill-forgotten FIA GT1 and Le Mans races. The original version has a 6.0L V12 engine but the road-legal version has its engine size increased to 6.9L but produces less power than the race version while mated with a 6-speed gearbox. 0-100kph takes about 3.8 seconds and onwards to 344kph, which is way fast even at modern standards.
Although it looks exactly like a CLK-Class, the GTR shares no common traits with the normal CLK. Turning in one of these at a certain mall's parking space and a certain CLK owner might believe that that the CLK-GTR parked next to it would be extremely jealous of why it looks rakishly awesome than his. Anyway, because it draws inspiration from the race version it was based on, the CLK-GTR really feels at home on the track, although drivers may need some decent driving skills to master such a monstrous machine which is as monstrous as the monster from Frankenstein. As time passes by, the CLK-GTR remains one of the best timeless supercars Europe has ever made and so far, no other Benz does it better than this.
The SLR is the result of the Anglo-German collaboration between the two companies; Mercedes-Benz and McLaren. Despite being a Benz, it was made by McLaren. The 5.4 V8 that powers it was built by Mercedes, producing 626HP of power and 208mph of top speed, while its dynamics were the work of McLaren themselves, trying to employ its know-how from the McLaren F1 team.
Driving a car with Anglo-German ties sounds fabulous but it can result to a heated debate and as I drive this car, I can really feel the so-called tensions between UK and Germany. For Germans, the SLR should have been made to be a grand tourer while for the Brits, it should be a decent track weapon. Whatever that is, handling this car is like rehearing the topic about what would Brits do in its role to Europe, whatever that is.
The SLS AMG, meanwhile, combines tradition with performance in one memorable package. Although the design was heavily inspired by the 300SL, apart from its signature gullwing doors that make this car look flashy for no reason, it comes with a 6.2L V8 engine that produces 571 PS (420 kW; 563 hp) of power and 650 N·m (480 lb·ft) of torque. With so much torque, the SLS AMG behaves like an American muscle car with all that brute noise from its exhaust as well as its dynamic character that novices will find it very tricky to get through corners. With tire-shredding is what the SLS does best, some cynics would think that the SLS is considered to be an exotic but this is not an exotic car compared to Lamborghinis and Ferraris. This is just a grand tourer that just wants to let it roar on the road and track and cannibalize its own tires seriously.
Now, I'm heading back to the AMG GT and although it doesn't have the surprising traits of the past halo cars Mercedes made such as the road-legal CLK-GTR, the SLR (in collaboration with McLaren), and the SLS AMG by the way it performs, the AMG GT is simply one of the best ways how Mercedes-AMG defined the sportscar in its own terms.
Sure, the 4.0L V8 BiTurbo is less powerful than the old SLS AMG's V8 but with all the right dynamics heavily inspired by Mercedes' F1 team knowhow since their two-time win, it shouldn't be much of a problem to learn about how the AMG GT behaves. Believe it or not, I even manage to lap this car around the Nurburgring GP Circuit faster than the old SLS AMG...but only just.
In conclusion, the AMG GT is just one of the main reasons why Mercedes made a potent sportscar that does its job very seriously while retaining the AMG lunacy it deserves. In short, it's still a great car even if it doesn't have the mojo that past Mercedes halo cars made.
