OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
Spectacular customer racing car: The gullwing model for the racetrack
Hockenheim, Germany, Oct 11, 2010 – In spring 2011 a new and exciting racing car is due to capture the limelight: the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. Developed to comply with the GT3 specifications of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), the SLS AMG GT3 is designed as a racing sports car for customers competing in sprints and long-distance races. These race series for near-series GT cars are noted for their very varied participants and great excitement. Not least because of their comparatively favourable cost structure, they are enjoying increasing worldwide popularity. The development and test programme for the SLS AMG GT3 is going according to plan. Bernd Schneider, a Mercedes-Benz works driver for many years, and record-holding DTM champion, is carrying out the majority of the test drives which commenced in June. The gullwing for the racetrack will be ready for delivery in time for the start of the coming motorsport season in February 2011. The price of the SLS AMG GT3 is EUR 334,000 (excl. VAT)/EUR 397,460 (incl. 19 % VAT).
Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Norbert Haug: "The Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 will start a new era in Mercedes-Benz customer motorsports. This car is an exciting and spectacular sporting tool for committed private teams and talented private drivers. Together with our well-proven sports and touring car partner HWA, AMG will establish a customer motorsports department, and ensure the usual high level of Mercedes service for its motorsports customers."
"I am very gratified," Norbert Haug continued, "that the demand for this new and unique racing sports car is so lively – we are receiving far more enquiries and orders than we can initially cope with. But fear not, the production graph will gradually rise more and more steeply so that all customers seriously interested in purchasing the SLS AMG GT3 will be catered for."
The new SLS AMG GT3 is an emphatic continuation of AMG's commitment to motorsport. AMG has been a pioneer in the motorsport world ever since its foundation in 1967. Ola Källenius, Chief Executive Officer of Mercedes-AMG GmbH: "With the SLS AMG GT3, AMG is once again showing its vast experience gained in over 40 years of motorsport, and its high expertise when it comes to developing unique, high-performance vehicles."
The new racing version of the SLS AMG is developed and produced by AMG in close cooperation with HWA AG. HWA is responsible for the AMG-Mercedes DTM racing team on behalf of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. The HWA team is one of the most successful in international motorsport, as witness nine driver championships in the DTM and ITC, as well as two championship titles in the FIA GT Championships. No other brand has won as many DTM races and DTM titles as AMG-Mercedes.
Interested racing teams can enter the new SLS AMG GT3 in all race series under the FIA GT3 regulations, for example the FIA GT3 European Championship, the ADAC GT-Masters and the endurance championship organised by the VLN (Association of Nürburgring Endurance Cup Organisers, with 10 motorsport clubs) as well as the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring or Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium).
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