Mercedes CLK LM USRRC Rolex 24 '98 Fictional Concept

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---Mercedes Benz CLK LM USRRC GT1 Daytona 24 Hours 1998

---What-If Livery Concept

The Mercedes-Benz brand has been know to be involved in car making and/or motorsport for over 120 years.They have conquered Le Mans, GT3 racing is abundant with AMG GT3's of every color and shade, and they have been winning Gran Prix races as early as the early 1910's with the Benz Grand Prix 150HP in the American Grand Prize in Georgia. Still, there are races that Mercedes-Benz have not been as successful as all from Europe.

Only recently has Mercedes-Benz been having a bigger presence in North America, and the most recent big wins in the US were at Daytona, where Mercedes-Benz are celebrating their back-to-back win in the GT Daytona classes in both 2023 and 2024. With all the recent success, just like the C9, can their next endurance challenger more than a decade later be up to the job?

The 1998 Mercedes CLK LM was a beast of a car, sporting the same engine as the Sauber C9 over a decade earlier, but this time it was naturally aspirated. Putting out 600 PS (591 BHP) in this guise, it was able to take pole at Le Mans in 1998 by little over a second to the next closest car, the Toyota GT-One. With drivers such as Klaus Ludwig, Bernd Schneider, Mark Webber and Ricado Zonta they were curelly taken out early for engine issues, but they could've done a 'test race' for the car to possibly work out these issues.

A run in the now USRRC-run Daytona 24 Hours could've helped develop the car even more than were previously done. Having the cars not run over 24 hours before, a run with Ludwig, Schnider and Zonta and debutante Dario Franchitti would compete in the GT-1 class, with the closest rivals being the Panoz Esperante GTR-1 and a couple 1997 versions of the Porsche 911 GT1s. Again, the race could go either way, it could be a flawless run by the car, or it could have also grenaded the engines here as well, and that knowledge could have been used for the next 24-Hour race at Le Mans in the summer.