Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft

(1)

Models Racing Special
Rallye Pikes Peak TransAm IMSA Talladega DTM STW DTM2000 LeMans Others

In the DTM (meaning German Touringcar Championship, the predecessor to the late ITC) the heavy V8s with their genious engines drove Mercedes and BMW to shame. Unforgotten the race on the Avus in Berlin, where 4 V8s lapped better times in the race as in qualifying - made possible by driving on slipstream "NASCAR-style" thus reducing wind resistance. Notice the hot air above the pavement! (?)
Or take Hans-Joachim Stuck, starting from the last row after the first race in pouring rain and winning the second! If the competitors were not sure wether to mount intermediates or rain tires, Audi would decide between slicks or intermediates.
(2)	Audi was the first company that won the DTM twice in a row (90 + 91). Then BMW and Mercedes went into politics and an once allowed crankshaft was declared illegal. That at a point were additional weights were so high that Audi would have no chance except in pouring rain. This is not trying to provide equality of chances, this is revenge. So 1992 became the last DTM season for Audi. Cynical: Audi expelled, BMW without really competitive material (only that stone old M3) - the DTM stood before its breakdown. Their fault! Thus, Mercedes should win championships without a glance. So Audi switched to the STW-Series. Here Audi 80 and A4 became the ones to beat once again.
Some background on the crankshaft DTM rules allowed to modify stock items, such as a crankshaft. Normal V8 engines have a crankshaft with 90° steps from crank to crank. For racing use, 180° are better as now the different cylinders are pretty much not influenced by their neighbours. The engine is now basically two fourcylinders. When a crankshaft is manufactured it comes from the die as a "flat" 180° crankshaft. For a stock engine it is forced into shape. Audi took that stock crankshaft and forced it _back_ to flatness! Neither BMW nor Mercedes believed that this was actually possible. They thought Audi just took the fresh crankshaft as it came out of the die. While in the beginning, the sport court believed Audi, it changed its opinion and forbid the crankshaft when BMW and Mercedes did whatever they did... My source is very trustworthy. And the many engine failures of the new V8s could be -to some extent- caused by that forcing-backforcing of the crankshaft. But of course, the engines were tweaked to the last bit to have some kind of chance, despite the unfair weight-disadvantage.
(3) This was the first picture I had of the very rare V8 Evo. I think it is an metal model in 1:43 scale. For better pics, go to the page of the stock V8. (2)	Its is astonishing if you compare the V8 to its competitors BMW M3 (above) and Mercedes 190 EVO 2 (below), that the V8 has only pretty small wings. This has different reasons. The evolution version of the V8 that was needed for homologation had only little wings (left) and it was only an EVO 1, while BMW and Mercedes had thiet stage two EVO 2. This "mistake" happened to Audi in their Rallye Sportquattro, where -caused by a to narrow time plan- a simple cast exhaust manifold had to be used. The other point is that the body style of the Type44/D1 seems to work well with that spoiler setup. The 200 TransAm and the Talladega "NASCAR" 200 had despite a relatively free reglement a chin wing and a pretty small rear spoiler.

Models Racing Special
Rallye Pikes Peak TransAm IMSA Talladega DTM STW DTM2000 LeMans Others

(1) origin: Motor Sport Visions
(2) scanned by Jeffrey from a magazine
(3) Pic from Didi, look at it at AudiV8.com
(?) origin unknown

Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 Jens
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