Mercedes-Benz CLR

[shaunx]

The Mercedes-Benz CLR was a Le Mans Prototype GT Mercedes-Benz racing car created for the 1999 race. It became infamous for spectacular crashes.
oh man so sad about that. It was Dubbed as the most beautiful crafted prototype in 1999 Le Mans 24 hours race,but it got several flaws of wrong "aerodynamic",that make this car easily "launch off" at Mulsanne Straight & IndianaPolis bank that bring almost immediate cancellation of CLR racing project & preparation of Mercedez to take a part in Le Mans series until this date......

[jhansen]

Care to elaborate on the point you are making?

[dj choc ice]

smell the cheese love the spam

[rcarr]

If he is trying to say that Mercedes is going back into Sportscars, nothing has been released by Mercedes Motorsport as yet.

Mercedes have had a terrible history at Le Mans, notably 55 and 99 but remember 91 and 98, rather than spectacular retirements they were doing fairly well until a mechanical fault cropped up.

They need someone like McLaren or Sauber again to run and build their cars for them. Running it as a factory effort is a major drain on resources and has catastrophic results if anything happens to the car such as the 99 flips, Mercedes became the butt of all the jokes for a few months and Peter became a celebrity for driving the car while it happened. Remember one of the sister cars did it twice to Mark Webber.

[gwyllion]

Shaun, perhaps you should consider contributing to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_CLR

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by rcarr

Mercedes have had a terrible history at Le Mans, notably 55 and 99 but remember 91 and 98, rather than spectacular retirements they were doing fairly well until a mechanical fault cropped up.

Remember 85 and 88? Not very good either.

[rcarr]

Originally Posted by PorscheFanNo1

Remember 85 and 88? Not very good either.

Saying that though, in 85 the car was raceable after the accident and as for 88, it wasn't Sauber's fault at all! The tyres gave up at 200mph!

[PorscheFanNo1]

Originally Posted by rcarr

Saying that though, in 85 the car was raceable after the accident and as for 88, it wasn't Sauber's fault at all! The tyres gave up at 200mph!

Never said it was, just said it wasnt good.

[The359]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

Shaun, perhaps you should consider contributing to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_CLR

Looks like another article I need to expand and clean-up a bit...

[Justin Moran]

Dont care I was still the best one they ever made!

[Splendid Cat]

[QUOTE=rcarr]]but remember 91 and 98, rather than spectacular retirements they were doing fairly well until a mechanical fault cropped up.

QUOTE]


Erm 98 - both cars out after an hour...That wasn't very good.

[The Badger]

I remember the laps that Schneider did in qualifying . Out of the pits with blanks fitted over the wheels and most openings in the body work taped up . He was absolutly on the edge at Tetre Rouge .

Nice car , but for me , I will always remember the car as the car that removed the hump outta the Mulsanne straight !!! What a pity Mercedes couldnt accept that the trouble was with their chassis , and not the track .

[dj4monie]

I was one of the first people to post that flip (on the web) on the run down to Indy (one of the few with a tv capture card running and watching TV via the PC in those days)

Personally I liked the CLK-LM the revision of the original ITC based chassis cars.

Yes the Silver Arrows haven't had it their way at all at La Sarthe, but one victory is better than NONE and so what if the factory wasn't directly involved, Prodrive winning Le Mans with a "home-built" didn't tarnish Ferrari's pedigree any.

[The359]

How closely did the CLK GTR/LM chassis relate to the C-class ITC cars?

[JAG]

They used ITC technology but were brand new cars.

[Zytek_Fan]

Originally Posted by The Badger

I remember the laps that Schneider did in qualifying . Out of the pits with blanks fitted over the wheels and most openings in the body work taped up . He was absolutly on the edge at Tetre Rouge .

Nice car , but for me , I will always remember the car as the car that removed the hump outta the Mulsanne straight !!! What a pity Mercedes couldnt accept that the trouble was with their chassis , and not the track .

Watch what happens in onboard videos of it. The front end starts to bounce up and down a bit too much

[gucom]

^^do you have (a link to) an onboard vid of that accident??

[GTfour]

Originally Posted by gucom

^^do you have (a link to) an onboard vid of that accident??

That was never released.

[rcarr]

Originally Posted by The359

How closely did the CLK GTR/LM chassis relate to the C-class ITC cars?

As far as I know the DTM/ITC cars were a spaceframe chassis with some roadcar pieces welded on to them, the rest was carbon fibre and the CLK-GTR was 100% carbon monocoque.

[dj4monie]

As I understand it, the first cars were built from spares of the ITC/DTM Mercs. And no the ITC cars were monocoque as well, only road cars bits were the roof and some body panels that was IT.

Great series, poorly run by Uncle Bernie

Those AWD Alfa 155's were the BOMB

[ss_collins]

What on earth is the point of this thread?

[Mike_Wooshy]

Sorry to drag this thread back up,Ive just read an article that says the monocoque chassis was made by Lola, which I didnt know I throught the whole thing was Benz/HWA??? Although the ride wasnt bumpy many of the testers wernt allowed to test off hockenhiems circuit, which made people question the ride quality. Also the V12 originally used was getting long in the tooth by the time, although the V8 they used for Le Mans was no better. Anyway again sorry to drag an old thread up I throught it was intresting about the chassis.