Mercedes in Sportscar racing

Mercedes sportscar racing history is almost a parallel of Jaguar's.

In the mid-50s they were Jaguar's main competition in sportscar racing, only withdrawing after the tragic 1956 Le Mans crash when one of their cars went into the crowd on the start finish straight.

They remained out of Sportscar racing until 1986, when the Swiss Sauber team (like TWR, now running in F1) unveiled their Mercedes powered C7.

The beautifully turned out Kouros sponsored cars always sounded as if they were about to expire with a very flat sounding V8, but they were fast from the start and within a couple of seasons the cars were exposed as full works Mercedes cars and winning both races and championships.

Sauber Mercedes at Silverstone 1986

Sauber Mercedes, Silverstone 1986

Sauber Mercedes at Le Mans 1987

Sauber Mercedes, Le Mans 1987

Sauber Mercedes at  Spa 1987

Spa 1987

They succeeded in taking victory at Le Mans at only their seconds attempt in 1989, when they swept all before them in the WSC, as well.

Sauber at Le Mans 1989

Full works Mercedes - Le Mans 1989

Mercedes were one of the few teams to persevere with the 3.5 litre category, although their car was not really in the 2 seater F1 class. It did, however manage to take a couple of wins, although it was generally outclassed by the more modern Jaguar, Peugeots and Toyotas.

In 1997, after the demise of the ITC, in which they'd been heavily involved, Mercedes returned to the FIA GT series. Their CLKs caused much controversy as the FIA allowed them to race without EC homologation (in effect without proving they were road cars) and they seemed to run much too low to be usable on the road.

The 1997 GT CLK

The CLK GT at Laguna Seca, 1997




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