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The dyno, the speedo, and the GTR
This is a dyno from a 2002 CLK430 . Per the owner, Stephen - SoCalCLK from MBWorld, it was a stock car with approximately 9000 miles on it. The 245+ HP at the wheels seems to indicate that Mercedes-Benz was very conservative when they reported 275 HP. That would explain the 102+ MPH trap speed on “another” CLK430. In the old days, before we had dynos on every street corner, we used a formula [(.00426 * MPH) ^3 * Weight] to determine horsepower. A 3500 pound car with that trap speed seems to point to 291 HP. A number more in line with the dyno sheeet
Ever wonder how those euro-spec M113 powered W208/209 & W210/211's perform without the speed limiter ?
The racing version was called the CLK GTR. The GTR raced in a European series called the FIA GT Championship.
The FIA GT Championship began in 1994 as the BPR Global GT Series. Private teams running cars from Venturi, Porsche, and Ferrari initially populated the series. A short while later, Lotus, Marcos, and McLaren joined the fray with cars built specifically for the series. At that time, the McLaren F1 GTR was the dominant car.
The series had the interest of several manufacturers, but they felt it needed a little refinement. This resulted in several changes. In 1997, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) became the governing body, races were standardized at 500 km., and Stéphane Ratel Organisations (SRO) arranged for European television coverage. That year, Mercedes-Benz, Panoz, and Porsche all joined at the factory level. This meant, aside from the independent teams, the GT1 class was populated with factory cars such as the Porsche's 911 GT1, the McLaren F1, Ferrari F40, Nissan R390 GT1, the Toyota GT-One, and of course, the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.
In 1997, the first year of participation for Mercedes-Benz, the CLK GTR won the World Championship. In 1998, the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR once again dominated the series and repeated as World Champion.
I think the term "dominated " is overly used in our society. Word abuse has cheapened the expression. There should be a restriction on the term. If you're taking about Casey Stengel's New York Yankees, the Yankee team that went to the World Series 10 times in 12 years, feel free to use the word "dominated ". The same holds true for the Bill Russell Celtics. Any team that wins the NBA championship 11 times in 13 seasons, dominated the daylights out of everyone else. Ditto for the early Mike Tyson. That would be the Iron Mike who at age 22, knocked out heavyweight champion Michael Spinks in 91 seconds. "That " is domination. Getting back to the GTR, it dominated too. In 1999 the GT1 class was cancelled. Why? The other teams felt they couldn't compete against the GTR, so they quit. Yes, every single team. Like Michael Spinks, the other guys just couldn't get off the canvas.
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© Marcus B. Fitzhugh 2005
Mercedes-Benz Specifications