The DTM, What NASCAR Should Be

So, I’m in the pipeline for Mercedes stuff … lots of press releases and corp-speak and blah-blah-blah, that sort of thing. Sometimes interesting things come up, sometimes it’s a lot of blah-blah-blah.

This was one of the more interesting pieces, or at least it got me to thinking.

There’s this racing series in Germany, called the DTM. Essentially it’s a German based touring car championship. It’s what NASCAR would be if they were trying to attract brainy people.

The cars are pretty close to stock (unlike that two door, V8 powered Camry in NASCAR … the one with the carburetor), the competition is ultra-close, and the racing is door-banging, wheel-to-wheel insanity that is WAY too much fun to watch. And even better, a lot of the bits and bobs on the cars trickle down into the cars that Mercedes and Audi and BMW sell to gearheads like you & me (Audi and BMW are heavily involved as well).

Oh, and the cars run on road courses, and turning right as well as left is much more fun to watch.

They also run more or less the same thing in England and Holland and Australia, and it’s just as interesting.

Anyway, after the jump there’s more pictures.

I highly encourage you to check it out - there’s probably ways to watch it on the net, and SpeedTV used to show DTM during the off season (not sure if they will this year).

Great post Tony! DTM races are awesome, I wish there was an American DTM circuit!
However contrary to your post these cars are not even remotely “close to stock”. Everything is modified and regulated from the 4L V8 470hp engine, rediculous aerodynamic body kits, specific gearboxes, overall weight and full on carbon fiber cockpit cell for protection!

I think you meant to say “they are not even remotely close to stock”