WEC - Mercedes-Benz CLR - Le Mans Lore #blogpost

Back in 1999, Mercedes-Benz would enter a car at the Le Mans 24 Hours that would be known as iconic but also one of lore. The car in question was the CLR. Why is it of lore, well, first we must look back at the design of the car. The CLR was based yet a redesign of a previous racer that mercedes produced, the CLK GTR. The CLK was V12 powered and was built for different regulations to the CLR. The CLR had to meet with the LMGTP (Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype) regulations which would hold a new class of cars including the CLR. The CLR was powered by a 650bhp GT108C naturally-aspirated V8, which sat in the mid of the car. Mercedes were in favour of the V8’s as they would prove to be better in conditions of endurance racing. Since the LMGTP class was a new, the head designer, Gerhard Ungar, who was part of HWA GmbH, the motorsports division of AMG, that would later become its own company the year after, had complete freedom. The new regulations allowed him to reduce the weight of the car from 950kg to 900kg. This weight reduction was partly due to the monocoque being derived from the CLK GTR’s. The CLR took the lower half of the monocoque made from a combination of carbon fibre and steel tube frame, but required a full carbon and aluminium upper half because of new load tests mandatory for LMGTP cockpits. This new monocoque was made from carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb. As well as a redesign of the structure and engine, the areodynamics was a focal point to Mercedes-Benz. They wanted a car with low drag to have much better straightline speed, so they gave it a low drag body.

The announcement of the CLR project was made in February 1999, and within the next few days testing began. Three CLR were built and tested around the California Speedway in the US, continued to test into March at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida and did final testing at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France. During the announcement of the CLR project, Mercedes also announced the nine drivers who would be racing for them, two of them in particular were, Peter Dumbreck and Mark Webber. Both drivers would have a frightful experience with the CLR in two separate incidents that caused Webber leave the WEC and allowed Dumbreck to retire from driving LMP cars for a while, opting to race in GT2 series for a few years. During qualifying, Webber was driving the No. 4 CLR, coming out of the Mulsanne Corner onto the stretch of track connecting the corner with the Indianapolis complex, he left the slipstream of on of the R8R Audi’s when out of seamingingly no where, the Merc became airbourne, somersaulting backwards and impacted the tarmac with its right side while perpendicular to the circuit then flipped back onto its wheels before skidding 300m into the safety barriers on the side of the circuit. Webber was taken to hospital with a sore neck, chest, and back, but returned to the race the next day.

Mercedes managed to repair the car for the race, however the day of the race, during the warm up session, Webber experienced yet another crash with the No.4 Merc. Webber was coming out of the Mulsanne straight through the Mulsance corner when the car lifted its nose into the air once again and rose over 9 m (30 ft) above the track, somersaulting backwards before twisting towards its right and hitting the tarmac with the right rear of the car while inverted, shedding its engine cover, rear wing, and nose. The car skidded on its roof into a run-off area just short of the roundabout next to the Mulsanne Corner before coming to a halt. Fortunately for Webber he recieved no major injuries. The No.4 car retired leaving only the No.5 and No.6 Mercedes still running. If Mercedes didn’t suffer enough from Webber’s incidents, they would now. During the fourth hour of the race, Peter Dumbreck, driving the No.5 Mercedes experienced the same incident as Webber did at the exact same location on the track. After clipping on of the GTS-class Porsche 911 GT2, and receiving no apparent damage Dumbreck continued on. The Merc was behind one of the comepting Toyota’s battling for 2nd when his crashed occurred.

Remarkably after the horrific crash, Dumbreck was found seemingly unhurt, a short distance away from the wrecked car, which unnerved the marshals who were trying to locate him. As the Le Mans circuit was on a pubic road, Dumbreck was given a breathalyser test and was taken to hospital for further tests, but was later realesed. The remaining No.6 Mercedes was called off the track the following lap, followed by AMG-Mercedes to close the last of the three garage doors, which signified that they have retired from the race. Mercedes had received substaintial criticism for what had happened, mainly due to Webber’s car experiencing two separate crashes, even though during testing for all three cars there were no abnormalities.

Even though Dumbreck initially blamed the height of the kerbs and the French government making adjustments of height along that stretch of road, Mercedes ended up cancelling the CLR project, withdrawing from the upcoming Norisring exhibition event and the final three rounds of the American Le Mans Series, and hasn’t participated since. It is spectulated however that the reason behind the crash was due to the areodynamics and the height of the car, but Mercedes hasn’t released information. The No.4 and No.5 cars were rumoured to be destroyed by Mercedes due to the excessive damage upon the cancellation of the project but the surviving No.6 car was bought by a private seller, and had made some apperances of lately. As a result of the failed project, Webber’s and Dumbreck’s crashes are now known within the world of motorsport. After the fateful race, Webber then left to join F1, racing with Jaguar, Minardi, Williams and Red Bull, and returning to the WEC with Porsche back in 2014. Dumbreck still raced with Mercedes in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and raced with Spyker in the GT2 category at Le Mans, he also raced in the LMGTE Pro with Aston Martin back in 2013. Mercedes failure with the CLR became lore within Le Mans and all of motorsport. It is unlikely Mercedes will build another Le Man prototype anytime soon. All we can do know is recount the failure of Mercedes as lore at Le Mans