DID IT NOT LEARN ITS LESSON? The Story of DTM's 1996 'Death' 

Includes paid promotion as the content from Raceroom of the C Class was provided to me for free by Raceroom. By the rules of RU-vid I have to declare this every time. The touring car content in Raceroom is amazing btw.

Seems like DTM itself isn’t completely the problem, but the manufacturers. Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW are traditionally considered as “unreliable” when it comes to presence in a certain series. Happened with F1, DTM, WEC and Formula E. It seems like they all want to come-in, win, dominate and leave.

The "new" DTM is just another, of already to many, GT3 series. There's no point in it unless you particularly like a specific driver. It's now a short-distance Blancpain.

1:23 «Naturally Hans is wet he's standing under a waterfall», such a legend!

Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it... No sympathy for DTM, only for its fans, having been there with BTCC. It would be great if they can resurrect it once more, but only if they can be sensible about it. I think the manufacturers and the organisers need to ask themselves what is it they _really_ want from a German touring car championship. If they can't come up with an agreed-across-the-board answer, then there's no point in dragging the GT3s through the mud.

The Top Gear references are on point as always. Keep it up.

As a guy coming from the motorcycle racing world, it honestly took me a while to adjust to the labyrinth that is the auto racing world. Series are born and then die in a span of few years, sometimes splits happen, and a lot of things are "privatized", and in those cases crossovers between different types of auto racing can happen (like ETCR being an hybrid between road racing and rallycross, various GT series having both sprint races and endurance races, the Xtreme E being basically its own thing, and silhouette racecars... just existing). In motorcycle racing it's all more straightforward: you have the discipline, for each discipline you have different classes of bikes and for most classes of bikes you have national championships, international championships and one or more world championships. It might be more boring from a nerd viewpoint, but it's a lot more stable.

Dario Franchitti has some great stories about his days in DTM on an early episode of The Marshall Pruett Podcast. When they were testing the moveable ballast, one time it broke loose under braking flew out of the car. And this was a heavy piece of dense metal like tungsten or something, it took several mechanics to lift it. The TCR rules package seems to be working fairly well, so DTM could try a similar rule set but with larger, more ‘aspirational’ sedans and coupes, like the AMG Mercs Jeremy Clarkson is always yammering on about. I personally like smaller cars, but I’ll admit that small family hatchbacks with aggressive aero kits don’t really make for an impressive premier class.

I’m curious why SuperGT has been so consistent over the years, it followed in a similar technological curve to DTM, so should have suffered to the same economic issues, worse perhaps because of the Japanese economy. I know that a whole generation was made aware of the format thanks to the Gran Turismo series, but surely there’s more to contribute to SuperGT’s success!

Loved the old DTM days, my heart always was with Opel.

Hey Aidan, my german is limited to ja ja, das ist fantastisch! Probably something to do with videos from dads special collection. Oddly enough I never saw the dishwasher getting repaired . . .

Maybe a Video about Super GT , it's history and success next? Maybe starting in the 90's?

DTM's desire to be the next big thing has almost killed them once again. They seriously need to shift their priorities onto a different direction, rather than hoping to get the biggest support from manufacturers. The solution could be a mixture of TCR and now-dead Euro V8 series. Basically V8 supercars but with the original chassis, prepared by privateers with close-to-stock engines and as many spec components as possible. Racecars derived from models that were not designed with racing in mind, with reduced input from the manufacturers and a lot of differences between each model. Put a minimum weight and a maximum amount of downforce. Ban four wheel drive. And if two or three models start dominating, so be it. We don't want manufacturers involved. We only want to focus on touring cars fielded by privateers, we don't care what the OEM is. So no BOP. Also, more emphasis should be put on the uniqueness of some of the tracks that DTM visits: the Norisring, the Lausitzring with the oval turn 1 included... And the Nordschleife should be on the calendar.

It seems to be a common arc for national and international race series: start with relatively cheap, simple cars and get good racing> manufacturers see the opportunity to do well in a popular series and join the series> the manufacturer teams leverage the manufacturers money to develop new technology to decrease lap times and the series organisers go along with it because faster cars=more excitement>Privateer teams get squeezed out of the series because of the cost> the manufacturers start to complain about the money pit that series has become> One or more of the manufacturers leave and almost no one else is left so the series either dies completely or has to be re-booted with new rules.

Best non native German explanation I have seen so far. Great Video!

So Indycar had two splits and DTM had two deaths. What is it that keeps motorsport series from learning?

If you get a chance you should look into the story of the original monster truck: Bigfoot. From humble beginnings in 1974 Bob Chandler and Jim Kramer built a dynasty that nearly 50 years later is still going strong. Over that time they've set multiple world records including jumping a 737 and creating the tallest heaviest pickup truck in the world (Bigfoot 4 which stands almost 15 feet tall and weighs 36.000 when set up to run dual 10 foot arctic land train tires) won dozens of championships been inducted into the IMT HoF (International monster truck hall of fame) and Bigfoot 1 is set to go on display at the smithsonian museum of technology next year.

It's really sad, what happened to the DTM. It once was one of the greatest racing series in the world, but it's mismanaged. It has been boring for a long time. I am racing a 190e Mercedes my self and it's just different on the historic touring car races.

Kind of makes me grateful that we could race all these under Gran Turismo rules lol

It is very interesting on what Manuel Reuter had said about DTM getting too expensive and too much engineering. Aidan, your thoughts on V8 Supercars with the new ownership (RACE) and the plan to try and reduce the costs and the glut of expertise within the teams. Because what has happened to DTM can easy plague Supercars in the near future

You watched Supercars races from the 90s, it was basically our golden age with Privateers also competing.

The DTM / ITC races in Helsinki got lots of hype in the Finnish media and they were very well recieved by the spectators here in Finland and it had great attendance on both years. DTM in general was followed by lots of Finnish fans cause the series had JJ Lehto and Keke Rosberg on top teams there. The Helsinki race also had former World Rally Drivers champion Markku Alen driving for Alfa Romeo on both years. After ITC collapsed the Helsinki Thunder circuit was used by the FIA World GT Championship series in 1997.

1:22 As a German, I have listened to this like 6 times now and I still have no clue what you were trying to say xD

I was too young for the "old" DTM (born in '86), but watched most of the "new" DTM except for some lean years in the late 2000s when the regulations just got too stupid (last-year-spec cars must make way for this-year-spec cars and so on and so on). I keep being confused about the motives of Benz and Audi, withdrawing from the DTM to f.e. "focus on Formula E", then withdraw from there within a few years, too. The 2019 season (with Audi, BMW, Aston) was already a ****show, the 2020 season (wihout Aston) even more so, because they completely failed to balance the Audis and BMWs that year and it was just horrendous to watch. I am still trying to make up my mind what this year was - it was *decent* entertainment, at least until Audi went stupid again and "schieb ihn raus!"-ed another title favorite (fans will know.); but the field was too small, especially given the half-dozen or so warm body field-fillers, some cars were notoriously uncompetitive (Lambo), the stewards were mostly retarded all year long, and for me in Germany there's the option between the English stream on the official homepage, with its grade D announcer, and the German broadcast on Sat1, which is mostly an ad vehicle for crossover promotions to that channel group's other retarded shows (supermodels etc...) and entirely unwatchable. Now if Ferrari pull out (Red Bull surely will), we're already getting dangerously close to a series with two main manufacturers (Audi, Benz) and the handful of also-rans (BMW, Lambo). BMW - who I root for - barely managed to hide how horrendous they were behind Marco Wittmann remaining in contention until the final weekend. Glock needs to go home, urgently, and I don't know which gypsy curse has befallen Sheldon van der Linde, but I think it's permanent... Also, stop the stupidity of not giving points to "guest drivers". It triggers my OCD tremendously. Thx.

I used to love TOCA Touring cars for the PS1. Watching it on TV was awesome too - my friends and I basically supported the cars which our dads drove - mine had a Vectra. I never understood at the time what happened and why the series died...

Dario Franchitti always said it was one of his favourite cars to drive (the 96 one with the mad aero). Honestly one of my favourite eras of any motorsport.

Living in the US I wasn't able to see BTCC or DTM in their respective hay days, but I really enjoy BTCC of today and from when I first saw DTM in 2017-2018 I loved those races as well. It was truly sad to see everyone pulling out of DTM because I was really hoping for a full crossover series between SuperGT and DTM...that would have been awesome. Having of course gone back and watched some of the older races of both categories I will say that BTCC has kept more of it's original style. Door banging, overtakes everywhere, run in the grass if u have to style...and that's great! DTM had some great driving and decent races but I don't feel like a Touring Car series should need/use DRS in order to make the racing better. However, DTM does not need to be a run of the mill GT3 series... give us back some iteration of what we've seen from this great series in the past!

Another very informative video! Great work!

I was too young for the old Dtm (but watched it in tv). But since 2006 I was visiting lot of races from the "new" Dtm and in this year Gt3 Dtm. It is still a big fun to see and hear the cars. The classic Dtm (cars from 80s and 90s)is driving on the same tracks. To see and hear the Itc cars is absolute spectacular. You can feel how big they were in the 90s.

Best car racing channel, love the mix of topics

Those mid-90s DTM cars were complete weapons. The Larini Martini Alfa is famous, and all of the cars were biblically quick. The moment ITC appeared it was obvious it was going to fail. Bubbles burst.

Yep, great episode! Keep them coming, please. Arm, you good?

The answer is really simple, but nobody seems to see it. It would even make the BTCC interesting again.... A lot of big OEMs make an M3/C63/RS4 style car. Take the traditional Group A style regulations and apply it to these cars, only apply some of the BOP framework from the various GT3 series. You wouldn't need OEM backing because private companies could build their own, but likewise the OEMs could also offer prebuilt privateer cars or enter their own. You could even expand the class to include the like of the A45 AMG and Focus RS. BOP would render massive spending a pointless waste. Most importantly it would make the cars not only relevant, but aspirational. Win on sunday, sell on monday still works. Ask Subaru who only still exists off the back of their success twenty years ago

DTM should have took notes from the Australian V8 Supercars championship on how to run a stable touring car regulation since they've been using the same style of cars since 1993

I like how your gamer chair looks like a black panther stalking you.

I just want the old school BTCC & DTM back. Slightly modified street cars (a freaking Volvo estate for example!), it was epic...

I would have loved that series. I got into car racing because of the engineering rather than the racing. That's part of what saddens me so much about the modern LMP changes. To have so many insane engineering ideas here all put into an otherwise unassuming touring car would have been the greatest racing series in history for me. But sadly 1 fan isn't enough to keep a racing series alive.

The later days of BTCC's S2000 era are massively underrated and its sad that it doesnt get the recognition it deserves. I'll even stick my neck out and say the production class in the early 2000's was good and made the BTCC's top class look pretty dull for a couple of years before it died on its arse.

1:21 I loved that James May reference there ;-) "Natürlich sind die Hände nass, wenn man unter einem Wasserfall steht", the only sentence that James May could speak in german :D

DTM should have shifted to a more extreme version of TCR. But with more power, and coupe bodies. But the same levels of aero as seen on the Audi's, Honda's and Cupra's running in TCR.

Covering Bathurst '91 recently, I learned the reason Rudi Eggenberger didn't make his usual pilgrimage to the Mountain that year was because he was busy running an Opel Omega 3000 Evo in a DTM/ITC race at Brno instead. Poor Allan Moffat was left to run his Eggenberger-built Sierras without Rudi programming the EPROMs (or his star driver Klaus Niedzwiedz holding the steering wheel), on a reduced budget because ANZ had pulled out and left him with Cenovis vitamins as his main sponsor instead. They really should've learned their lesson when Group A died imho. But thanks for clearing up what "DTM/ITC" meant, that helps.

Great video again mate. Bathurst and Australian Touring Cars history for next video please.

Aidan, love these videos, a great follow-up to this would be to look at how in the aftermath of the death of the ITC the FIA took over the thriving BPR Endurance Series and managed to murder the GT1 category inside 2 seasons! And who was predominantly to blame? Merecedes-Benz who had nowhere to spend their enormous budget after the demise of the ITC....

That Aston Martin DTM machine was one of the coolest cars Aston built since the DBR9.

1996 ITC and 1997 FIA GT are some of my favorite seasons to watch back these days. Now I just need to dive into the '90s BTCC seasons.

3:21 "Speed costs,,, how fast do you want to go?" Sign on garage in Mad Max. 'If it neither picks my pockets or breaks my leg it should be legal to run': Benjamin Speedfreak Franklin

Racing series need to realize that they are the product as well - for the drivers. Many famous drivers went to DTM, because it offered quality racing. They brought their sponsors, their crews and, most importantly, their fans. Once you have drivers leaving instead of coming, you're done.

I'm really enjoying your content and your willing to share your knowledge of motorsport. I just wish there was more pictures to illustrate what you are telling...

Thank you

Massive btcc fan. Can remember in my youth the itc special at donington which the btcc cars ran in(but didn’t score championship points). Was great to see how the drivers and teams did against Europe’s best in similar cars. Now, a btcc Sunday is to me the creme de la creme. We’re as wtcc and now wtcr got Tiring to watch. 2 fault short races on strange street circuit that just seems so tight to race on! Also loved when the btcc ran on f1 weekend. There should be a touring car series that follows f1.

Reuter is right; you don’t need more money and faster cars to make a great series. TBH, DTM moving to GT3 spec cars actually renewed my interest because every manufacturer and their grandmother have a GT3 spec car in their arsenal. I think diversity of manufacturers is absolutely paramount to having a successful racing series, and moving to GT3 spec cars will help in that aspect.

I absolutely loved BTCC and DTM in the late 90's and It was up their with F1 for me but a % better as every race was bumper to bumper close racing, I loved the KIT and the wheels and the fact it was different manufacturers racing hard. So glad to have been alive to see these things.

Was lucky enough to go to see the dtm cars at donington back In the day They sounded awesome especially the alfas with there 4 upswept pipes

Going multi-class should’ve been considered. Having 2-3 touring car classes, or if so much interested in GTs, then a GT and a TC class, or GT, TC and TCR. Something like the Speed/Pirelli World Challenge, but with its own twist.

I could picture every single one of them drivers as you were reading down the list, think I'm getting old!

I’ve never heard of “Sefano Modena”, but I do remember STEFANO Modena racing for Brabham, Tyrell and (IIRC), Jordan in F1.

Look at the similarities between DTM, BTCC,(etc), and NASCAR. Back in the day, a touring car was stock. Now, the only thing stock on these cars is the badge. It's really a shame.

I don't know for today, but in the mid 90s some have said that Bernie used to kill anything threatening F1's TV money (and his).

The issue with DTM is - what regs do you even try and bring in to get the manufacturers back, that doesn't just turn it into another version of an already existing series? GT3 was already catered for with ADAC GT Masters, the TCR regs already have a German series and don't capture the imagination, as would NGTC, Class 1 is dead, and European Style Aussie Supercars sounds great in theory, but was tried with V8 Superstars unsuccessfully. Add that to what most manufacturers actually want to sell these days, in high riding SUVs, which aren't suited for circuit racing at all, and DTM genuinely seems in an impossible situation.

I remember the old DTM cars and I was quite the fan. They looked incredible, sounded incredible but the racing could be quite processional. I was lucky enough to go to the Donington round though and got to hang around the paddock like the awe struck teenager I was. JJ Lehto stood out as the friendliest of the lot by far. Possibly telling that I don't actually remember that much of the racing but it was 26/27 years ago now.

It just blows my mind that racing from like 2015 onwards went so aero driven. f1 2017 regs, Dtm, Indy car “aero kits”, nascar and Supercars. Fast cars are cool for qualifying but not for passing and racing.

From a spectator’s viewpoint, ‘road cars’ should ostensibly as close as possible to the show room version. DTM cars resembled the Incredible Hulk after being stung by a swarm of bees!

It’s time that the FIA and the manufacturers got together to develop a set of rules for a proper worldwide touring/saloon car series based on affordable family cars but with some decent grunt so that it’s around 100PS above the TCR with slightly larger and heavier machines.

I'll be honest the modern mega quick, high downforce cars are really cool, I remember watching them at Brands Hatch and absolutely loving it. Very sad those machines are gone.

We Would Love A Story About The WTCC Please Aidan

I genuinely believe. Take the c63 coupe, m4, rs5 coupe sprinkle of aero all rwd obviously and dtm would flourish. Any other manufacturer can enter, alfa, aston whoever else. Sports coupes/sedans

I think DTM itself is not the problem here. Yes, they should have their own cars and I think a budget cap and balance slide for the sport (similar to F1) should be implemented. Having own regulations and showing off some of the finest automotive engineering in terms of touring cars always was a great selling point for DTM. It attracts manufacturers and drivers alike if done right. But as others here in the comments have already pointed out, a huge chunk of the problem comes down to the unreliability of the manufacturers. Come in, win, leave. That's just not a viable strategy, it destroys motorsports if big companies can just throw their money at stuff for as long or short amounts of time as they wish and then vanish. We need those companies to keep the series alive, don't get me wrong here - but we need to make sure that it all goes down in a regulated and financially viable manner that allows even smaller teams to compete as well as big ones. We want to see great racing and great engineering win, not pure money. Shifting to GT3 is a terrible move imho. The DTM should have rather gotten together with other national series such as BTCC, the one from Japan, and so on, and developed an own set of regulations which can be run interchangeably in all of those series. That would mean that: - Manufacturers can run the same type of cars in different national series, giving them exposure but saving cost. - The series can work together to implement new rules etc. and market themselves and through their connection, thrive together instead of stealing each others fans. - The fans of one series could easily follow what's going on in another. - Manufacturers competing in several championships could be awarded aggregate points for a world championship, furthering exposure and therefore their drive to compete more. - These regulations would set the series apart from the FIA's GT cars and might allow for more engineering freedom in some areas, to show off more of that good stuff. - The regulations might even be able to compete on the market with what the FIA has in hand with their touring cars.

You should watch all 94 and 95 races... dirtiest competition ever... Mercedes drivers could do anything they want... it was a "full-contact" competition... but just for one manufacturer... 96 Opel winning was a "cleaning" operation.... but it was too late...

Hope it was my Tiff DTM Merc video that you got info from 👍

I mean, Alfa Romeo being responsible for the death of the BTCC Supertourers is one of the most Alfa Romeo things that can happen. "And thatsa my car says Russo!" - Murray Walker

DTM is/was stuck in the past (i.e. early to mid 90s) for me. That's why I can' appreciate Alan Gow's efforts enough to bring in and maintain the NGTC era of the BTCC

unpopular opinion: I really like the GT3 cars. I likem even more than the class 1 cars. The problem are nit the GT3 cars, the problem is that the series is badly run.

DTM should take a look at how the Aussies do the Supercars championship. That way they can be a sort of superquick touringcars but still have somewhat normal looking cars that can race each other at a reasonable price

It seems a common pattern/cycle in so many racing series. There is a nice competitive series. Big money arrives and everyone gets excited. Rules are changed to allow expensive widgets that make cars faster but don't improve racing. People don't like it as much. The big money finds another series to try to dominate. I look at todays GT3 cars with their carbon brakes for example. £4,000 for a replacement set of discs and you need them every meeting. Big advantage in braking, that is until everyone has them. Then that shorter braking distance just means less passing. Alan Gow has done a lot to make BTCC sane but teams still find ways to spend £500,000 to do a season. There just seems an ability to spend a fortune when its not needed. One curious example is the fantastic MX5 Racing from the USA in the Mark 4 cars. Its about US$100,000 to do the 7 race weekends. Here in the UK even with gold standard team support it would be £10,000 (plus car) for a similar amount of racing. For successful club racing series its all about keeping the money out.

1:19. Come on, surely a fine gentleman such as yourself would know "Zwei Weltkriege, eine Weltmeisterschaft".

1:18 "I understood that reference"

BTCC and Aussie Supercars both seem to have got the formula spot on (although Holden’s demise in Australia could be problematic)

my perfect series: bring a car from the showroom with slicks and a rollcage. This would determine which manufacturer makes the fastest cars for sale. and make road cars better too. everyone could enter, because everyone sells cars.

I dunno squat about dtm or btcc but it was an interesting story

Brings to question how Super GT has continued to succeed where DTM has failed, despite doing similar things. Despite the similarities, there has to be some key differences in how they're run that's allowed one to thrive where the other had faltered.

It's interesting how different paths DTM and BTCC went after the end of group A. BTCC went initially slower, but more "road relevant", while DTM basically shifted into grand touring cars (although of course Germany also got their own supertouring series). This difference in approach is seen today, with DTM becoming a GT3 series, instead of dowshifting to TCR or NGTC. While GT3 seems kind of disappointing after years of more unique cars, it's been interesting to see what kind of racing you get with GT3's when the "endurance" aspect is taken away. Still, it's a shame that Class 1 didn't work out with DTM and Super GT, and could've maybe joined Supercars within the same regs once again too, if only they were cheaper...

Funny you mentioned about races in Japan and Brazil, both Alfa and Opel didn't sell cars in those markets.

@2:41 -- Hey I remember that from Gran Turismo 4!

Aidan shooting on the red one hard on this video.

not even a minute in but i can tell its going to be a gooden prime era of cars and drivers, commentators, tracks

DTM was fine until they switched to the 2.0 liter turbo of 600ish HP. In fact, if I was in charge of a new DTM set of rules: I had 4.0.liter DOHC atmo, or 6.0.liter Pushrod atmo, or 2.3 liter turbo DOHC, or 3.6 turbo Pushrod. No more than 8800 rpm on any engine. Fuel quantity controlled per km and for the race. 550 horsepower max, checked on the dyno before and after each race. And the car? Tube frame only (it's cheaper than carbon tub). No DRS, albeit I'd keep the huge wings and aero stuff. And penalty weight for the top 5.

Nowadays I would draw more parallels with Super GT500 and DTM given the ambition from certain people to unify the class of car run in both series. I think the difference in between the approach of the 2 series' is that the racing programmes for the Japanese marques are under the respective engineering departments, whereas in DTM it is/was under the marketing departments. This means that in Japan there is more pride on the line, as well as loyalty being a big part of Japanese culture anyway. As far as I see it, the class 1 rules were kind of doomed from the beginning in Germany, whereas they continue to thrive in Japan. You could also make an argumenrt for GT300 being a good reason as to why the series thrives as well I suppose.

I would like to see a series where Alfa Romeo Giulia QV competes against BMW M3.

Gotta love how the concept of a Budget cap is always the last thing that the people running those series is

it seemed to me that DTM thought it was too big and important to fail, it seemed to think it was up there with F1 in terms of significance, and when they suddenly realised they needed to cut costs they didn't take that seriously enough. even when it came to relaunching as a GT3 series they thought they were far more important than anything, with their "GT3 but we'll change everything", and when the manufacturers said "if it's gonna cost us that much to rejig the cars, we'll pass", they finally had to realise

It's such a shame what happened to the DTM. I have loved it since I was a kid but these cars from 1995/96 will always be my favorite. The cars, the drivers, the sounds, the tracks... it was like that they knew it was going all tits up by the end of 1996 so they thought "fuck it. Let's just go as many places as we like and show what we can do".

Can't see the point of the current DTM, just yet another gt3 championship. Last saw the DTM in 2018 at Brands, but with the sophisticated aero overtaking was virtually non existent. Speed is relative,if all the cars are at the same speed it's still a race, whether they are full house or group n group 1. I remember as a teen visiting Oulton park for the touring cars,it was a list price class series, including Moscoviches, think it was Tony Lanfranchi. A few years earlier as a birthday treat it was Oulton again. Coopers, galaxies,cortinas, I think they were the golden years.

I watched some of DTM this year because it's free on RU-vid and Albon drove in it, The final race killed all interest I ever had in the sport. having to watch team orders in F1 sucks but cars of different teams but same manufacturers slowing down to steal the drivers championship is just stupid.

I would like to hear your view on the history of atcc and v8 supercars

Truth of the matter is you have to remember Motorsport isn't a sport it's a business, in particular manufacturer backed Motorsport. It runs in cycles the championships grow then spending grows to be competitive then the spending out weights the value it returns in marketing then manufacturers leave, the championship die/force to reinvent themselves, happens in f1, sports cars, gt's, touring cars, rallying. Think about gt1 same thing happened there as DTM.

90's BTCC and DTM probably were more fun to watch even tho they were slower, because of it wasnt as clean and surgical as modern Racing is. Drivers had no Problem going into contact with eachother(maybe they were not as professional too), the Cars were more forgiving and could take some beating.

Comented befor watched the video. Have not thought that you dedicate yourself to the bees nest called DTM^^

I've got a lot to say about this as a fan of both growing up watching all btcc and dtm races since the mid 90s. Cost definitely killed the dtm, when it came back it was healthy again for a long time. Then history repeated itself. I also have watched and loved jgtc/super gt for many years. One of the main reasons for that not being a thing was Mercedes. In 2014 they agreed to run the same rules so cars could race in either series, but the dtm cars had to switch to a 2.0 turbo engine. Mercedes stalled for years and then when it was about to happen in 2017 they announced they would be leaving at the end of 2018. If this didn't happen I think we would have had dtm cars in super gt and maybe the dtm stays as class 1. In the end all we got was 3 cars from Japan race at hockenheim at the end of the 2019 season, and the dream race in Japan. As a big fan I was totally gutted. Also when the dtm was rebranding to gt3 cars I remember saying to fans in Germany why don't you use the class 1 bmw and audis and merge with the adac gt masters, then it would have 2 classes like super gt. I got shot down on twitter by the German fans, then a few months later some media suggested it and the fans soon said actually it wasn't a bad idea afterall. Fans are crazy. I've missed a lot out here, but I could talk about this subject for days, and usually did with Sam Collins from racecar engineering

This sounds similar to the Australian V8 Supercar championship. The cars are now nothing like what you can buy off the showroom floor, and then the issue of Holden.... Its dead, the brand died along with it the Commodore(that no one bought) thats out on the track racing a car that kinda resembles a Ford Mustang, but a pregnant one. Lol

My opinion about touring cars demise is entirely on par with Jaymes May's - it was interesting to watch , when the cars were almost the cars our dads drove.... The moment they went mad with development and spending it wasn't anymore, cause everyone knew, that C- class Merc or Mondeo they were racing haven't anything to do with Mondeo or Merc we could buy ourselves...