Click for hi-res gallery of the Audi R8 DTM safety car
Audi has announced that its superlative R8 sportscar will serve as the safety car for the ever-popular DTM touring car championship, having also served in the same capacity for the recently-concluded 24 Hours of Le Mans. Audi's performance division quattro GmbH prepared a pair of R8s for the German racing series – with the second serving as a "racing taxi" – but noted that, "because the R8 possesses the genes of a perfect sports car", little in the way of modification for duty was required.
The pair of R8 support vehicles made its debut at the Norisring Speed Weekend yesterday, where Mercedes-Benz beat out the new Audi A4 DTM with a 1-2 finish. Follow the jump for the press release and click on the thumbnails below for our high-resolution image gallery.
While Villeneuve and Montoya are adapting well to their new home in NASCAR, their German-speaking former colleagues might be headed to their own sedan-based racing series at home.
Reports indicate that, against the advice of his older brother, Ralf Schumacher climbed into the cabin of a Mercedes C-Class DTM race car for a trial test at the Estoril track on Tuesday.
Austrian driver Christian Klien, who was passed over for the last seat at Force India in favor of Giancarlo Fisichella, is believed to have also participated in the test. The Mercedes-AMG team in the popular German touring car series recently suffered the loss of Mika Hakkinen, and is tipped to be eager to replace him with another big F1 name.
click above to view more high-res images of the Team Lexus IS-F
No single car better demonstrates the determination of Lexus to stick it to the Germans than the IS-F. The high-performance sports sedan gives the BMW M3, Mercedes C63 AMG and Audi RS4 a real run for their deutschemarks euros. But Lexus isn't about to let it rest there. That is, not if the rumors are to be believed.
A few days ago we brought you a preview image of the IS-F Racing Concept, which Lexus is bringing to its home-court Tokyo Auto Salon later this week. But while it certainly looks the part, emerging reports now suggest that the concept is no mere concept at all, but that Lexus is actually planning on using it to compete in Germany's domestic (and both highly popular and ultra-competitive) DTM touring car series. The rumors are fueled by the image you see above, posted mysteriously on TeamLexus.com. If the reports turn out to be true, the IS-F could find itself trading paint with race-prepped AMG Mercedes C-Classes and Audi A4s before long.
However a seemingly conflicting report suggests that the racing IS-F pictured above is actually a GT2 car destined to succeed the previous IS300-based racer that Lexus campaigned in the 2006 American Le Mans Series (ALMS). Enough differences exist between the dark concept headed for Tokyo and the orange one in the new images to allow for the possibility that Lexus could be relentlessly pursuing perfection in two distinct classes with racers based on the same sports sedan. Check out the images in the gallery below for more angles.
For those unfamiliar with the DTM, it's a European touring car series that sees major carmakers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Opel compete against each other using race cars based on their regular production models. At the series' most recent event in Barcelona, Audi motorsport boss Wolfgang Ullrich instructed all his drivers to park their cars midway though the race.
The reason behind the controversial decision was because of what Audi claims was rough treatment by several Mercedes-Benz drivers. During the race, a number of Audi drivers were bumped off the track by their Mercedes rivals. In one incident, Audi's Martin Tomczyk took the lead before he was bumped off the track by two-time Formula 1 World Champion Mika Hakkinen. After attempting to restart, Tomczyk was forced to retire because of damage to his radiator. All remaining Audi drivers were then ordered to retire because of fears of further damage at the hands of Mercedes' unscrupulous tactics.
The two Mercedes drivers involved were penalized for the incidents after the race with fines as well as a ten-place grid penalty at the championship finale in Hockenheim next month.
The German Touring Car Championship (DTM) is one of the most popular forms of motorsport in Germany with Opel, Audi and Mercedes-Benz having participated at times since it's revival a few years back. Currently only the Audi A4 and Mercedes C-Class are on the track, but the competition is fierce. Earlier this week, the DTM organizers held a promotional event in Dusseldorf Germany that turned out to be a bit more spectacular than anyone anticipated. Mercedes pulled out one of its 2002 racers and put the new 2008 C-Class bodywork on it. Apparently doing donuts in one of these is not recommended due to a lack of airflow over the brakes, since one of them overheated and ignited the bodywork.
When Mercedes-Benz bought out controlling interest in AMG in 1991, its founder Hans-Werner Aufrecht was allowed to set up a separate enterprise to continue its motor racing activities in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz. So the firm bearing his initials HWA was born, and they continue to field Mercedes AMG cars in the popular DTM touring car series and producing the Mercedes Formula 3 engine for purchase by private teams.
Aufrecht has remained at the helm of the company ever since, but pushing 68 as he is, HWA is looking towards the future. In order to raise funds to secure the company's continued viability, HWA is floating five million shares and searching for a successor to Aufrecht, having invited former Mercedes CEO Jurgen Hubbert to chair their board. All the common enthusiast sees is Mercedes taking checkered flags – the news gives us a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Mercedes sphere and their racing activities.
Here's my issue with NASCAR (and I know I'm in the minority here, based on the sport's immense popularity): I can barely tell one car from another, and as a result, I get bored. Sure, I know who the big guys are and what cars they're supposedly driving, but the fact of the matter is this: the bodies are, to the naked eye, identical-looking. If the cars didn't have stickers to simulate the front fascia of an actual production car, I'd be lost. Monte Carlo SS? Charger? Fusion? Camry? Sure, if you (and the decals) say so. Thank goodness for the production-based classes in ALMS, SPEED World Challenge, Grand-Am and the like, where Vettes, Astons, Mustangs, etc. are completely identifiable.
The Germany-based DTM series also gets it right. Granted, only two marques participate -- Mercedes-Benz and Audi -- but the cars look like the ones they're supposed to be based on, well..because they are. This week in Geneva, Mercedes unveiled its extra-mean-looking new DTM car. In conjunction with the debut of the redone C-Class sedan, the new AMG-prepped DTM car has been similarly brought up-to-date. The C-Class' new beak looks right at home on the wide-bodied A4-hunter, and despite the massive fender flares, aggressive ground effects, and serious rear wing, there's no mistaking it for anything other than a C-Class.
The Germans, it seems, enjoy knowing what the hell it is they're looking at when the cars streak by the stands.
Used to be there were known routes for washed-out F1 drivers to go. Couldn't make it in the big leagues, you could always go to Le Mans-style endurance sportscar racing or to touring cars, for example. But as the story we've been following has unfolded, the latest refugees from the top-level series have been spinning a different web, painting their unprecedented moves to NASCAR as a sideways one, not downwards. That doesn't mean they're without their options, though, as Audi has made clear.
Ingolstadt would be happy to welcome both Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve into their German touring car team. DTM has had its fair share of former F1 drivers, and after losing Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Audi is keen to fill his seat with other big names.
Touring cars are Europe's version of stock-car racing, and though maybe not as big as NASCAR is in the US, Germany's DTM series draws a big crowd and races on familiar road-course tracks. Montoya may be on a more solid track into NASCAR than Villeneuve, but neither of their futures in the series are secured, so a move to DTM for either is still far from out of the question.
Mercedes' competition in the showcase DTM (German touring car) racing series gave the world the CLK DTM...but not the whole world, as the very limited-edition special was not certified for use in the United States. But that could change, according to Mercedes-AMG sales guru Mario Spitzner.
The CLK-DTM was first sold as a coupe, of which only 100 were made, followed by 80 convertibles. Both were powered by a 582-horsepower supercharged V8, with stiffened suspensions, beefed-up brakes and uber-aggressive bodywork that left no question these were very special vehicles, capable of rocketing to sixty in under four seconds. Mercedes even shifted the range-wide 155-mph electronic speed limiter to 200.
Like many limited-edition supercars, the original CLK DTM was not brought over to the US because of strict testing laws here. But Spitzner says they could make a second run of the cars just for the American market. And considering the investment, they'd be likely to make more than 100 this time.
So what's standing in their way? Although Spitzner says some of their best customers in the US have been begging Mercedes to bring the car over, they'd need to be sure there was enough demand to warrant the investment. And while touring cars generate a lot of enthusiasm in Europe, the same doesn't apply in the US, where (last we checked) Mercedes wasn't running in NASCAR. Another factor that could prohibitively limit the marketability stateside of the alphabet-soupercar is the upcoming CLK 63 AMG 'Black Series' that's expected to offer 530 horsepower, probably for a lot less than the quarter-million dollars the original CLK DTM went for.
The coolest part about rally racing is undoubtedly those precious moments of air time, when racing cars – usually designed to great lengths to stay glued to the tarmac or dirt – take flight. People will camp out in the woods all day and watch entire races on television just for those rare glimpses.
This video gives you just the good stuff: WRC and Dakar racing machines flying over crests and down hills, plus some touring cars and open-wheelers spinning out, just for good measure. It's three minutes and nineteen seconds that elevates the levitating cars to a ballet. All for your viewing pleasure – see if you can stay in your seat.
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