Mercedes Returns to Sports Car Racing

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SuperShouden

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SuperShouden
So, the SLS GT3 is officially in the line up for the FIA GT3. This marks the first time Mercedes has been in Sports Car racing since the CLR disaster at LeMans in 1999. The big question, of course, is, if the SLS does well, will Mercedes be willing to enter it into the 24 Hours of LeMans? Remember that the SLS is the modeled after the SL300 which caused the 1955 LeMans disaster that killed several people including the driver and people in the stands. Sure, all that's changed and Mercedes has learned a lot from their Disasters, but still...one would think they'd be apprehensive about going back to Circuit de la Sarthe.

However, Mercedes, welcome back to Sports Car Racing. It's been 12 years. Good to see you back.
 
I watched the SLS GT3 raced at the Algarve a couple of weeks ago in the FIA GT3 and they all looked pretty impressive. In just their first couple of races, they can keep up with the Lamborghinis and the BMWs... Also have seen them racing in some endurance racing at the Nurbrugring and they performed really good too as an endurance racer.

If anything goes the right way, it might be a bit of a nerve for them stepping into the Le Mans circuit but they have a really good car to compete with. You know, the safety nowadays has been vastly improved and the SLS is lightyears different than those SL300 and definitely the CLR. I would love to see them being there and challenge the others...
 
I watched an article where Brundle drove the SLS. Utterly amazing sound :D
 
"Watched an article"? That's an interesting thing of seeing a car and hearing it in motion on a piece of paper.

Which programme did you see it on?
 
Submerged
"Watched an article"? That's an interesting thing of seeing a car and hearing it in motion on a piece of paper.

Which programme did you see it on?
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In this case an 'article' is a segment in a magazine... I didn't mention paper, reading or otherwise. I think that you must be confusing my post with another.

To answer your queston; it was during the BBC F1 coverage at some point towards the middle/end of the 2010 season.

EDIT: Here you go: [Link - may be UK only]. It was broadcast as an article in the F1 magazine that runs before the live race coverage.

Here's a vidcap from that showing the car - nice!

BrundleSLS.jpg
 
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As long as the star-crossed Peter Dumbreck(?) isn't piloting one of these beautiful cars (remember Le Mans 1999?), Mercedes-Benz should be just fine in their return. Those SLS GT3's are lovely. Just hope they can deliver on the track.
 
SuperShouden
but still...one would think they'd be apprehensive about going back to Circuit de la Sarthe.
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I don't see why they shouldn't:sly:
CLRflip2.jpg

 
Yea, now they are "flying" in the ADAC GT Masters. :lol:

 
Didn't Mark Webber do that too in a CLK-GTR? 2002?
 
TenEightyOne
Didn't Mark Webber do that too in a CLK-GTR? 2002?
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Not the CLK GTR. The CLR, and that was in warmup for the 1999 24 hours of Le Mans.
 
Peter.
Not the CLK GTR. The CLR, and that was in warmup for the 1999 24 hours of Le Mans.
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Ah, I was soooo wrong!

All I could definitely remember was a very young-looking Mark Webber climbing out of a destroyed looking Merc :D
 
There's either a Nicholas Watts painting or a photograph of the viewpoint of a Marshall.
It's pretty insane, you can see one or two marshals looking at the car and one looking the other way.
The guy who's looking away life basically depends on the others that a car is coming at them at 200+ mph.
 
TenEightyOne
Ah, I was soooo wrong!

All I could definitely remember was a very young-looking Mark Webber climbing out of a destroyed looking Merc :D
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Mark Weber flipped it in Qualifying and Warm-up and refused to drive the car after the second flip. Mercedes said they had fixed the problem for the Warm Up and said it again for the actual race, where Mark Weber's replacement was driving the car when it flipped 5 times. The car itself was poorly designed. Essentially, the car was very easy to flip. And, at Petit LeMans that same here, at Road Atlanta, Porsche had one of their GT-1 cars flip. All the flips resulted in the smoothing out of ALL hills across all LM circuits. That meant the big hill on la Sarthe, the bunny hills at Road Atlanta and several other hills went away.

Also, in that ACAD video. I noticed it was ANOTHER SLS that got the one that crashed loose. Bet Mercedes wasn't very happy about that.
 
yeah, I just knew that Weber didn't race in the actual race. But, yeah. lessons learned from the CLR.
 
I think I would be pretty nervous driving a Mercedes-Benz in a sportscar event :lol:. They appear to have awful luck.
 
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Eh, nevermind my original post.
 
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Ardius
I think I would be pretty nervous driving a Mercedes-Benz in a sportscar event :lol:. They appear to have awful luck.
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But they've also had a lot of success, too. The Sauber C8, CLK-GTR, CLK LM and the 300SL were all champions. the CLK LM won the 1998 LeMans in the GT1 class. The GTR was a FIA GT1 champion and the C8 won LeMans a few times. I believe the 300SL won a couple races before they discovered why you don't built a racing car body out of aluminum in 1955. (Essentially the body of the car was turned into thermite. Reports said the car was so hot fire fighters couldn't get to the car to save to driver.)

But, all of Mercedes major issues have been at LeMans. That's were both of their catastrophic failures happened. (Although, the one in 1955 wasn't Mercedes' fault. Some idiot in a Jaguar E-type passed him coming on the straight and then dove into the pits like a moron, leaving the Merc with no where to go.)

Mercedes, since then, just hasn't done Sports Car racing very much. They tried with the Sauber in 88 and won, but then, it took them 10 years to return and now another 12 years to come back after the CLR incident. I would wager to guess that if the SLS fails as badly as the CLR, Mercedes just won't participate in Sports car racing ever again. Their hesitation is understandable though. There WERE supposed to enter the SLR into FIA GT3, but...perhaps having another car with "LR" at the end was too scary.


It is good to see them back, though.
 
SuperShouden
But they've also had a lot of success, too. The Sauber C8, CLK-GTR, CLK LM and the 300SL were all champions. the CLK LM won the 1998 LeMans in the GT1 class. The GTR was a FIA GT1 champion and the C8 won LeMans a few times. I believe the 300SL won a couple races before they discovered why you don't built a racing car body out of aluminum in 1955. (Essentially the body of the car was turned into thermite. Reports said the car was so hot fire fighters couldn't get to the car to save to driver.)
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It was actually magnesium, aluminum was much more expensive and magnesium was often used as a more financially viable alternative. The drawbacks were immediately seen in 1955 though. Not just the driver was killed either... Pierre Levegh essentially saved Fangio's life in that accident, as he was right behind him. At the cost of killing 80 spectators who were only protected by haybales. Isn't hard to understand why Germany, France and Switzerland all banned motorsports that year. (Although Switzerland held onto it for a much longer period.) Or Mercedes for that matter. As far as I'm aware Jaguar and Mike Hawthorne have never apologized for the incident...

But anyway, times have moved on, but the sportscar curse at Mercedes is quite noteworthy.
 
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