Schnitzer Motorsport

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Schnitzer Motorsport is a successful Motorsport Team based in Freilassing near Munich, Germany. In the last years, they mainly competed as BMW Team Germany in the World Touring Car Championship with drivers Jörg Müller and Dirk Müller (no relation).

[edit] History

The team was founded in 1967 by the brothers Josef and Herbert Schnitzer, born in 1939 and 1941. Their stepfather Karl Lamm had a car repair shop and dealer business. The brothers started racing in 1962, and Josef Schnitzer won the 1966 German Championship in a BMW 2000ti. In 1968, both retired from active race driving to focus on the business and the race team.

In the 1970's, the Schnitzer's younger half-brothers Karl ("Charly") and Dieter Lamm joined the team, with Charly Lamm acting as team manager at the race tracks. In 1978, Josef Schnitzer died in an accident, and Herbert Schnitzer remained as the boss.

Apart from having the BMW dealership and Motorsport team based in Southern Germany's Bavaria, they also own a BMW tuning specialist concern in the far north near the border of Belgium and the Netherlands, in Aachen. As this city has the license plate code AC, they called this branch AC Schnitzer.

Since the 1960's, the Schnitzer team has been mainly active with BMW and BMW M cars in Touring car racing like the European Touring Car Championship, the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft and the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC).

Schnitzer was also active in Sports car racing and Endurance racing, eg. the ALMS.