Mercedes-Benz CLR

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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.

[edit] Racing history

Mercedes-Benz CLR #4 with Mark Webber in the warmup to the 1999 Le Mans 24h, above its sister cars, a BMW V12 LMR and a Viper.

In April 1999 Mercedes launched the new Mercedes CLR as successor to the FIA GT championship-winning Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR which would take part in the upcoming Le Mans 24 Hours. With tens of thousands of miles of testing on smooth race tracks, Mercedes felt that the car was quick enough to win the race, despite the short time spent on wind tunnel testing.

Three cars were entered, numbered 4, 5, and 6, driven by a German, a French, and an English speaking pilot, to allow efficient international marketing. The major competition of Audi, BMW, Cadillac, and Toyota each entered two, three, or even four cars, making the 1999 LM one of the toughest ever. And there were smaller private teams like Panoz. Only Porsche, winner in the previous year, was missing.

However, Mark Webber's #4 car became airborne at the Indianapolis corner during the Thursday night qualifying session. The car was rebuilt from scratch on Friday, modified for more downforce at the front, and entered in the Saturday morning warm-up. This time, Mark Webber only made it to the Mulsanne kink when the car backflipped in spectacular fashion, this time caught in mid-air by photographers. Luckily, neither Webber nor anyone else was injured on either occasion.

Despite the second incident and the awareness of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, Norbert Haug decided to go ahead and enter the other two cars in the afternoon, with additional modifications and instructions to the drivers not to follow others cars closely over humps.

Despite this, after over 4 hours, driven at the time by Peter Dumbreck, the #5 CLR chased a Toyota GT-One and became airborne two turns before Indianapolis, somersaulting and landing over the barriers into the trees, all on world-wide live TV. The crowd in the Le Mans grandstands was mortified, seeing the pictures without hearing any comment for a long time. Luckly it turned out later that nobody was injured. At that time, the race was under yellow flags, and the remaining #6 car driven, by Bernd Schneider, had already been retired.

The flying Mercedes at Le Mans brought the almost immediate cancellation of the CLR project and its planned participation in the Norisring and the ALMS series. The surviving #6 car was never raced again nor shown at the Mercedes-Benz Museum, but sold to a private collector.

Mercedes blamed the humps at Le Mans, which had to be lowered later. At Road Atlanta in 1998, a Porsche 911 GT1-98 had also backflipped, and a BMW V12 LMR did so again in 2000. Yet, these cars won a Le Mans without incidents.

[edit] Specifications

Mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, carbon fiber and aluminium honeycomb monocoque
Mercedes-Benz V8 (GT 108 C) engine, 5721 cc, electronically controlled ignition and injection system (Bosch Motronic)
X-Trac, unsynchronised, six-speed gearbox with magnesium casing
Front & Rear suspension: Double wishbones with push rod activation of the spring and shock absorber suspension units, attached directly to monocoque with pick-ups
18" diameter undivided magnesium wheels
Bridgestone Potenza Tires
Length: 4893 mm
Width: 1999 mm
Height: 1012 mm
Wheelbase: 2670 mm
Weight: 921 kg