The rumor mill is churning away this morning as Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas sells his special 2018 Mercedes AMG GT. Though Bottas has not announced any plans to leave his Mercedes team, that has not stopped fans from speculating. However, that isn’t even the best part of this listing.

What makes the Mercedes AMG GT special?

This is not just another AMG GT off the lot in Helsinki. Since Bottas is on the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, you can bet this GT is cool. The 2018 GT has under 10,000 miles on the 4.0L V8. Since the car is listed in Finland, where Bottas is from, the listing notes it gets 384 kilowatts. That’s just over 520 horsepower.

With a starting price of 230,000€ or $278,973 in the U.S., the AMG GT goes from 0-100 in 3.8 seconds. The Brilliant Blue Metallic coupe has 19-inch wheels in the front and 20-inch wheels on the back.

The GT has air conditioning, heated seats, and electric side mirrors. It also has a heated windshield, sport seats, and keyless start/locking. It comes with MirrorLink, a Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS, and parking assistance.

For fuel consumption, the highway gets about 7.8L or 30 mpg. On the highway, it gets 12.2L or just under 20 mpg. Bottas and the driver will sit down to discuss the car before signing paperwork while the F1 driver tells his personal stories driving the automobile. Not a bad deal if you happen to have $278,973 sitting in the bank.

A race against a Formula 1 driver

If you plan on purchasing the AMG GT through Bottas, he’s offering to sweeten the deal. The F1 driver will personally turn over the keys to the buyer and challenge them to a casual go-kart race at Valtteri Bottas Racepark.

Pippo track in Lahti, Finland, is where Bottas learned to race. A crowdfunding page on Mesenaatti says that the Pippo Motorsports Center is at risk of closing due to plans to level the track for a business center.

Since 1980, drivers like, Kimi Räikkönen, Mika Häkkinen and Keke Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, Heikki Kovalainen, Mika Salo, JJ Lehto and Leo Kinnune have raced on the track. Three of which became Formula 1 champions.

This was Bottas’ home track back in the day. The government wants to level the track ring and has already taken away the depot area. The crowdfunding page also notes that the area is home to about 10,000 and 15,000 karting enthusiasts.

Due to the impending issues, Bottas and Pippo have decided to develop the area and upgrade the track. Additionally, it would be named Valtteri Bottas Racepark to get more young fans involved.

Focusing on cleaner racing

While people might not know formula 1 for its green nature, some teams are working to change that. If the crowdfunding goes through for Valtteri Bottas Racepark, there are plans to make it the cleanest motorsports park around.

“The aim is to build the world’s cleanest motorsport center in the area, the energy used by which is produced with renewable energy sources as self-sufficiently as possible, energy consumption is minimized and the vehicle is electrified.”

Mesenaatti

Currently, the race track project has raised $1,847.57 (1530 €) out of the targeted $120,756.50 (100,000 €).