Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters: Encyclopedia II - Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters - The new DTM 2000

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters - The new DTM 2000

The DTM returned in the year 2000. The series adopted the format of the 1995 championship, with most rounds held in Germany with occasional rounds throughout Europe, but having learnt the lessons of the ITC disaster the ITR constantly strived to keep costs in the series from exploding to unreasonable levels, and to keep the championship firmly tied to its German roots. As too many races were planned outside Germany, no Championship (Meisterschaft) status was granted, and the DTM initials now stand for Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (German Touring Car Masters).

All DTM race cars have 4 litre V8 engines which are air-restricted to 470hp, no matter if similar engines are available in the road cars. Instead of the road car bodies, unrelated purpose-built chassis are used, which are closer to prototype racing. Many drivers have in fact described the handling of the cars as closer to single seater racing cars than road cars. Only the roof sections of the road cars are put on top of the roll cages, and lights and other distinctive design features are used in order to provide a resemblance to the road cars. Also, in order to save money and provide close racing, many common parts from third party specialist are used, like transmission (from Hewland and X-trac), brakes and Dunlop Tires. The all-important aerodynamic configurations are tested in wind tunnels before the season, brought to an equal level, and kept that way throughout the season.

Alfa Romeo, who at the time were mounting successful campaigns in the European Touring Car Championship, did not return to the series. BMW was also involved in the ETCC and was not satisfied with a championship only for Germany. Audi did not enter as they insisted on using AWD, despite running the RWD Audi R8 in Sports car racing.

Unlike the previous incarnation which primarily used sedan models, the new DTM featured only 2-door coupés, with Mercedes using their CLK model, and Opel using the coupe version of the Astra.

Attempts of Zakspeed to enter with a car looking like a Volvo C70 were not approved, but Bavarian-based private team ABT (with former STW-Supertouring-champion Christian Abt) was allowed to enter on short notice. As Audi had no suitable 2-door coupé, they used the TT as a basis, even though the dimensions of this car did not fit into the rules. The shape had rather bad aerodynamic properties, and so they were allowed to use a stretched form later as their results were poor. Further benefits helped the Abt-Audi TT-R win in 2002.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The new DTM 2000", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki