BMW V12 LMR and Mercedes-Benz; the best and worst from the 1999 Le Mans ...

[Wouter Melissen]

With factory efforts from Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota, the 24 Hours of Le Mans had one of its strongest fields in 1999. Mercedes-Benz and Toyota brought closed cars, BMW and Nissan open prototypes and at the company's first attempt Audi sampled both options. At the end of the race BMW and Mercedes-Benz had to share the headlines but for two very different reasons. In the tenth anniversary year we take a look at both cars and find out why.
The V12 LMR BMW brought to Le Mans was developed jointly with their future Formula 1 partner Williams. It featured an evolution of the V12 engine that had already won Le Mans outright in the back of the McLaren F1 GTR a few years earlier. The team arrived in France fresh off a win in the grueling Sebring 12 Hours, so they were well prepared. The car was not the absolute quickest in the field but managed to stay in the wake of the leaders despite being able to run as much as two laps longer between stops. The #17 example piloted by the likes of Lehto and Kristensen look set to clinch the win until a stuck throttle caused a big crash in the Porsche Curves. Fortunately the second car was also in contention and scored BMW's first outright win at Le Mans. The winning car was at Goodwood earlier this year to mark the 10th anniversary of the win.
The real story of the 1999 Le Mans, however, was the Mercedes-Benz CLR. The low-drag coupe had some serious aero-problems that cause the car to flip on the long straights once in qualifying and again in the warm-up. Despite the obvious design flaws the Mercedes-Benz team risked its driver, the marshals, the spectators and public humiliation by allowing the two surviving cars to start. The inevitable happened and on live television Peter Dumbreck's CLR took off and flew into the trees. It's a miracle nobody got hurt in any of the accidents. The other car was withdrawn and that was the end of Mercedes-Benz at Le Mans. The video of Dumbreck's aerobatics is still very popular on Youtube. It was long believed that the only CLR left was quietly crushed in attempt to wipe the 1999 Le Mans from memory in Stuttgart. So we were very surprised to see it earlier in year and actually running on a track during the Modena Trackdays. Even more baffling is the fact that the car was actually sold to a customer. We captured every detail of CLR chassis 003 during this very rare and welcome opportunity.

Enjoy the links:

1999 BMW V12 LMR - Images, Specifications and Information

1999 Mercedes-Benz CLR - Images, Specifications and Information

[RacingManiac]

Surprised Mercedes still have CLR kicking about....

[Wouter Melissen]

Originally Posted by RacingManiac

Surprised Mercedes still have CLR kicking about....

It must be the only one. Maybe HWA held onto it and eventually sold it.

[RacingManiac]

I wonder how big a stack of disclaimer he'd have to sign before the buyer got the car...."Do not, under any circumstances, drive over anything resembling a hill at speed..."

lol