Well, this was a bit unexpected. Francis Bourgeois – the internet personality who blew up in popularity a few years ago for his unadulterated joy around the subject of trains, making trainspotting cool in the process – has teamed up with Chris Harris and an ultra-rare AMG Mercedes for his latest video.
We’ll spare you a description of the slightly contrived setup, and jump to the good bit – Harris and Bourgeois hammering along the coast of North Wales in a Mercedes CLK DTM AMG Cabriolet in pursuit of a beautiful steam train.
The car is one of the stranger creations of Mercedes’ AMG performance division. The CLK DTM was a lighter, harder, more aggressive version of the CLK coupe launched to celebrate the car’s victory in the 2003 DTM championship.
Just 100 coupes were made, but even rarer is the convertible, of which just 80 were built in 2006. Even in this less aero-optimised guise, it would still hit 62mph in 4.0 seconds and top out at 186mph, thanks to a 5.4-litre supercharged V8 that churned out 574bhp – more power than even the later (and arguably more renowned) CLK63 Black Series.
Chris Harris and Francis Bourgeois in a Mercedes CLK DTM AMG Cabriolet
That power, though, pales in comparison to the other vehicular star of this video. It’s 44871, a preserved Stanier Class steam locomotive originally built in 1945. It was one of the last British-built locomotives in the dying days of steam power, and now spends its days running various heritage services. We don’t really understand how the power of a train is measured (or anything else about them, for that matter), but one source we found online reckons 44871 makes the equivalent of about 1600bhp. So stick that up your supercharged V8.
Anyway, the video’s a joy to watch, if only for Bourgeois’ sheer enthusiasm evidently rubbing off on Harris, of whom we’ve seen a more wholesome side recently between this and his recent BBC show with Paddy McGuinness.
LMS 44871
Harris, who’s recently returned to producing independent videos on his Chris Harris on Cars YouTube channel after leaving the Collecting Cars auction platform, shot another video with Bourgeois in which the pair spend some time skidding about in the excellent Porsche 911 S/T.
