What's Your Favorite Le Mans Race Car?

This week I'm checking a really big item off my automotive bucket list: I'm going to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Fitting for my first time at the race, I'm being hosted by Genesis, which is competing in endurance racing for the first time in its history. Le Mans is the oldest currently-running endurance race in the world, having first been put on in 1923, and it has seen a huge variety of different race cars compete over the decades.

That's what led me to our question for today: What's your favorite Le Mans race car? I'll accept any answer, as long as it's a car that actually raced at least once (even if it DNF'd). Maybe your favorite is down to the car's design, or its engineering, or its actual racing prowess. Whatever the reason, I want you to tell me about your favorite Le Mans racer. As always, bonus points for telling me why, and for telling a good story.

My favorite era of Le Mans racers is the late 1990s and early 2000s, specifically the GT1 and prototype classes. There have been some really awesome cars that I could pick for this, like the Bentley Speed 8, BMW V12 LMR, Lotus Elise GT1 and Nissan R390. But I think it's pretty easy for me to decide on a favorite — it's gotta be the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR.

Well, specifically the CLK LM, as the GTR didn't actually compete at the 1997 running of Le Mans since it was more well-suited to shorter races. (And yes, I know the car in my photos is a GTR and not an LM, I just had to use them because of the incredible CLK Sportswear livery.) The CLK LM was a dominant racer in the FIA GT series, winning every single championship race, though at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, both cars ended up retiring. The following year, its replacement, the weirder-looking CLR, famously went airborne and flipped before crashing... three times.

Daniel Golson/Jalopnik

Despite all that, it's still my favorite car that's raced at Le Mans. I just adore the look of the thing, how Mercedes was able to put its signature design elements on such an absurd shape. Every time I see one, whether it's a roadgoing GTR or one of the race cars, I can't help but spend a long time staring. All the different CLK GTR variants have long been some of my favorite cars to drive in video games, too.

So, what about you? What's your favorite car that's raced at Le Mans? Let me know in the comments below, and I'll round up my favorite answers later this week.