Americans aren't the only ones who like to see their daily drivers trading paint on the racetrack. In Germany, the NASCAR equivalent is called Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, or DTM, and Mercedes-Benz kicked off its press conference at the 2007 Geneva Auto Show by firing up its latest entry and driving it onto the stage. Like NASCAR, DTM cars look like their production counterparts yet have very little in common. And like NASCAR, close racing is key to DTM's success so all cars must pass tests to assure parity among the entries...
Sounds just like the good ol' boys down South right? Well, not quite. You see the AMG-Mercedes C-Class DTM car was driven onto the stage by a cheerful looking 24-year-old woman named Susie Stoddart. Don't expect to see that in NASCAR anytime soon. —Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor
carlisimo says:
06:29 PM, 03/ 7/07
DTM is very fun to watch, though I wish there was a greater variety of cars (they do look a lot like their real-life equivalents, but it seems to be just Benzes and Audis). I wish we had higher-profile touring car road races here.
SubyTrojan says:
07:07 PM, 03/ 7/07
carlisimo, Opel used to participate as well. I really miss the old FIA GT series. It's not what it used to be compared to the late 1990s with the Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR in 1997 and CLK-LM in 1998 and the McLarenF1 GTRs mixing it up.
7driver says:
12:28 AM, 03/ 8/07
Ah, DTM. Memories of (Franchitti, I think?) getting an Alfa 155 up on two wheels in the middle of a race, then bringing it safely back down.
SubyTrojan says:
10:03 AM, 03/ 8/07
I thought Dario Franchitti drove the ol' Mercedes-Benz 190E's. Then again, that was before he went to CART (when I first knew who he is).
trackwrex says:
10:36 AM, 03/ 8/07
Ah, those were the days. It's also the era when the CLK-GTRs (two in the same season) flipped end over end... :P I believe that was the late 90's... Could be early 2000's... DTM is becoming more interesting since Hakkinen is driving... I'm more of a Super Taikyu and Super GT (JGTC) kind of guy... But I like the current FIA GT competitors: Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, AM and I believe I saw an Ascari too. :)
trackwrex says:
11:35 AM, 03/ 9/07
sorry, i stand corrected... i'm speaking of the right era of racecars but the cars that flipped were the CLR's... :P oops.