It seems like each time a race sequence tries to ‘reinvent itself,’ it’s chasing the spirit of Nineteen Eighties touring automobile racing.
Inexpensive budgets, shut racing, and fan engagement – that’s all a race sequence can want for, and fortuitously, motorsport appears to be in a wholesome place proper now. Let’s be trustworthy, although; we’re nonetheless a good distance from the long-lasting stature of the Group A period within the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM).
Launched in 1986 as a successor to the short-lived Deutsche Produktionswagen Meisterschaft (DPM) and the sooner Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM), the DTM championship exploded in reputation throughout Germany and mainland Europe. Weight ballast, turbocharging, and intense competitors made for a fiercely contested area, as did decrease weight limits and wider tyres for the underdogs.
The E30 BMW M3, Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, and Mercedes-Benz 190 E Evo are essentially the most fondly-remembered DTM machines, however let’s not overlook earlier DPM vehicles just like the BMW 635CSi, Volvo 240 Turbo, and V8 Rover SD1 Vitesse, which had been nonetheless extremely aggressive within the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft’s early years.
Actually, the 1986 DTM champion was none aside from Kurt Thiim, who piloted a Rover Vitesse with an epic Toshiba livery. Sure, my British satisfaction has simply kicked in exhausting…
…although, as a traitor and a BMW fanatic, I’d be remiss to not point out my favorite DTM liveries: the black Schnitzer 635CSi and the blue/inexperienced Vogelsang BMW Motorsport E30 M3. My scorching take: the Vogelsang stripes – blue/inexperienced/inexperienced – had been the right anti-hero to the pink/purple/blue BMWs of the period, particularly on Harald Grohs’ black M3 in 1987.
I’d like to personal one – road-legal, in fact, with all decals eliminated besides the stripes. Both that or an Opel Omega Evo 500, the precursor to the Omega 3000 24V seen beneath in Kissling Motorsport’s livery. Although it by no means raced within the DTM, it laid the inspiration for Opel’s future Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft marketing campaign.
Again to the matter at hand – and no, I’m not being blinded by my rose-tinted glasses right here – DTM was a sufferer of its personal success. With yearly, the competitors pushed groups to pour an increasing number of cash into their vehicles, and by 1992, the Group A period had come to an finish. The following three years of technical warfare between groups in the end led to much less thrilling racing because the vehicles turned extra complicated and fragile because of this.
Lively aero, weight switch techniques, sequential gearboxes, digital diffs in four-wheel-drive techniques, and traction management – by the point the Nineteen Nineties rolled round, the rawness was gone. DTM was successfully absorbed into the ‘Worldwide Touring Automotive’ sequence by 1996, and by 1997, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft was successfully useless. Whereas the German Tremendous-Tourenwagen sequence tried to select up the place the DTM left off, it wasn’t till 2000 that German touring vehicles had been again in drive.
Mercedes-Benz, Opel, and Audi (through ABT) launched a brand new breed of V8 coupés primarily based on the CLK, Astra Coupé prototype, and TT silhouettes, respectively. Whereas initially profitable, over the subsequent 20 years, DTM rules would discover various levels of success and complexity earlier than succumbing to GT3-based rules to maintain – you guessed it – ever-rising prices in verify.
At this time, the racing is improbable, however so is GT3 racing all over the world. DTM isn’t alone in shedding its distinctive character, and it factors to a deeper downside: how technical advances have drained the rawness from motorsport – and, in some ways, enjoyment in our on a regular basis lives.
However I’m not right here to debate the ethical dilemmas of the twenty first century. So, let’s put all that apart and simply take pleasure in these great outdated race vehicles, lets? That’s precisely what I did on the 2024 Essen Motor Present.
Mario Christou
Instagram: mcwpn, mariochristou.world
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