For the 1998 FIA GTR Championship, the factory AMG-Mercedes Team switched from the 1997 CLK-GTR to the newer CLK LM which differed in many ways from the '97 car. Out went the 6.0 litre V12 and in came a new 6.0 litre V8. The front bodywork was lowered and the doors opened gullwing style as opposed to hinging forward as they do on the 1997 CLK-GTR. The newer car went on to win the final 8 rounds of the 1998 Championship (AMG-Mercedes having successfully used the '97 CLK-GTR to win the first two Championship rounds that year).
Team Persson Motorsport continued to use the CLK-GTR throughout the 1998 season, as a "customer" team. Their cars were the same as the previous years top car, but in 1998 they failed to win a single race against the might of the factory AMG-Mercedes team. Sponsorship was by Mercedes-Benz "Original Teile" or "Original Parts", which explains the superb livery on this car. Mercedes-Benz parts are packed in blue and white cardboard boxes, the design of which is mimicked on the front end of this model, and the rear end is decorated as if the bodywork was made of cardboard and had been ripped open to reveal the engine and the rear suspension.
The number 12 Team Persson CLK-GTR was driven by the driver pairing of German Marcel Tiemann and Frenchman Jean-Marc Gounon.
This superb looking model is let down I feel by rear bodywork which is almost impossible to remove, and nearly as hard to put back on! In doing so to take these photos, I damaged the rearmost decals overlying the rear spoiler, much to my annoyance! Some decal softener saved the day but the crack in the decal is still visible. Overall a good model, but slightly below par in some areas for an AUTOart (such as the interior which is nothing special, and the tires which have an obvious molding line on them) hence it gets 7.5/10, a little lower than usual for an AUTOart.
