Drake wanted an ultra-rare Mercedes so one was bought for him but he pulled out due to a million dollar condition

  • Drake wanted to buy a rare one-of-six Mercedes roadster
  • A Miami dealer found one for him in Abu Dhabi
  • At the last minute, Drake changed his mind

Published on Oct 15, 2024 at 11:55 AM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis

Last updated on Oct 15, 2024 at 3:10 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Tom Wood

Drake wanted an ultra-rare Mercedes that can’t be easily attained.

He brokered a deal with a dealership that got one for him and then, at the last minute, Drake changed his mind about the whole deal.

We know what went wrong, but it’s unclear how.

The only thing we know for sure is that there was a seven-figure reason behind Drake’s decision.

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Here’s why the deal went wrong for Drake

Drake wanted a Mercedes CLK GTR Roadster, which is a rare homologation special that Mercedes built in the late 1990s.

Mercedes was only going to build one, but they ended up making six.

Curated, a Miami-based supercar specialist, was able to locate one in Abu Dhabi, and they made a $12 million offer on behalf of Drake.

The offer was accepted, but on one condition.

The Abu Dhabi collector in question also wanted to sell a Lamborghini Reventon (pictured below), which he apparently valued at $1 million.

So that’s $12 million for the Mercedes, and $1 million for the Lambo.

But Drake, according to Curated, didn’t want to spend a penny over $12 million.

From the outside, this clearly sounds like a communication breakdown.

Because either Drake wasn’t made aware ahead of time of the extra million he’d have to spend, or he changed his mind after agreeing to the deal leaving the dealership with a $12+1 million hot potato.

The story behind the Mercedes CLK GTR Roadster

The GTR Roadster is a road car based on a race car, which was, in turn, inspired by another road car.

Hashtag inception.

In the late 1990s, Mercedes built the CLK GTR race car based on the road-going CLK, just like the one that’s sitting at the bottom of a Deep Dive Dubai.

The vehicle was intended for racing in the (then) new FIA GT Championship.

Everyone loved the car, and Mercedes knew they’d have to build a road-legal version anyway for homologation reasons, and so they decided to build a few for their top-tier customers.

Between 1998 and 1999, Mercedes made 28 road-legal CLK GTRs.

Aside from two prototypes, they also made 20 coupes, and six roadsters.

Today, this is one of the rarest street-legal cars in the world, which explains the eight-figure price tag.

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Experienced content creator with a strong focus on cars and watches. Alessandro penned the first-ever post on the Supercar Blondie website and covers cars, watches, yachts, real estate and crypto. Former DriveTribe writer, fixed gear bike owner, obsessed with ducks for some reason.