What's Your Favorite German Car?

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

As car enthusiasts I'm judge that a batch of your clip pinch friends is spent coming up pinch circumstantial niches and categories of cars and past arguing astir nan champion and worst examples, aliases conscionable talking astir your favorites. As I've done pinch British, French, Italian and Swedish cars, for today's mobility I want you to show maine astir your favourite German cars. Let's effort and support this to accumulation cars, truthful nary title cars aliases concepts unless you person a really bully answer. Bonus points if you ain aliases person driven your favourite German car.

If you cognize me, you would expect maine to prime the Mercedes-Benz G-Class arsenic my favourite German car. But nan G-wagen is excessively easy of a prime for me, connected its ain pedestal acold supra thing else. So I put nan G speech and thought harder astir what my favourite German car really is, and nan reply came quickly: it's nan Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.

I stake that immoderate of you would besides prime nan CLK GTR arsenic your favourite German car. How could you not? It was developed for nan caller FIA GT Championship racing bid successful 1997, which required homologated road-going accumulation models for the top GT1 class. The CLK GTR whitethorn person utilized nan aforesaid headlights, taillights, doorway handles, grille and hood ornament arsenic nan normal CLK coupe, but different it was wholly its ain animal pinch a carbon-fiber monocoque fused to an aluminum honeycomb framework and a mid-mounted people aspirated V12 motor making complete 600 horsepower. Somehow nan CLK styling useful connected nan GTR's chaotic proportions, and differences betwixt nan Straßenversion and title car are minimal. The roadworthy cars person a much usable, normal interior than you'd expect, too. They're conscionable unspeakably cool.

The McLaren F1 had been dominating nan erstwhile seasons, and Porsche had travel up pinch nan 911 GT1, a likewise styled supercar to nan CLK GTR, but they were nary lucifer for Mercedes. The three-pointed prima took location some nan constructor's and driver's championships successful 1997, and nan CLK LM follow-up was moreover much successful. Even if nan title cars had been terrible, though, nan CLK GTR would still beryllium unspeakably cool. And pinch only 28 roadworthy cars built successful full betwixt 20 coupes, 6 roadsters and 2 prototypes, seeing a CLK GTR successful personification is simply a uncommon treat.

But what really solidified nan CLK GTR arsenic my favourite German car was its quality successful 2002's "Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2," 1 of nan top racing games of each time. I had known astir nan CLK GTR and loved it for a agelong clip earlier that, and it was featured successful different games I played including erstwhile NFS titles, but "Hot Pursuit 2" was nan crippled I played nan most, and nan CLK GTR was ever my favourite car to title successful it. That has extended to truthful galore different video games that I've played successful my life, and I'm looking astatine aggregate CLK GTR standard models connected my shelves arsenic I type this.

That's capable from me. What's your favourite German car, and why? Let america cognize successful nan comments beneath and I'll information up my favourite answers later this week. And earlier you make a joke, it was the 1999 Mercedes CLR that flipped astatine Le Mans, not nan CLK GTR.