DTM im Rückspiegel - Volker Strycek - Steffan Irmler - Christian Thaler - Klassentreffen @Papenburg.

Our Easter gift to all fans of the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) and the DTM Classic Cup: a comprehensive 35-minute journey through the history of Opel's involvement in motorsport, culminating in the overall victory of the Astra V8 DTM Coupé at the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring Nordschleife almost 20 years ago, in June 2003. We filmed this extensive retrospective of Opel's touring car racing history less than three weeks ago at Automotive Testing in Papenburg – naturally including an engaging discussion, to which Volker Strycek, the first-ever DTM champion, contributed with palpable enthusiasm. Working on this film was a real pleasure – a heartfelt thank you to Steffan Irmler, Christian Thaler, Gerhard Müller, Petra Pollmann, and the tireless producer Marc Freye! Enjoy watching... ...and until next time, I'm Yours truly, Carsten Krome – and I'm out, thank you! Chapter One. Deep in the West. The backstory. In 1988, the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) was in full swing. Ford, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz were battling for the title in the top tier of motorsport, fighting tooth and nail. The same was true for the tire manufacturers involved. They were pursuing a similarly relentless pace of development as the car brands they supplied. Into this climate stepped an underdog, initially given little chance: Opel. In the summer of 1988, the compact Kadett E GSi received a 150 hp four-valve engine in its production version. The DTM equivalent boasted 280 hp, thanks to the skills of an engineer from Oberhausen, considered a master of his craft. Helmut Kissling enjoyed almost cult status at that time. His workshop in the Buschhausen district is located on a street with a very fitting name: Zum Eisenhammer (At the Iron Hammer). Here, Kissling pushes forward with the development of his front-wheel-drive car, officially priced at 150,000 DM, which is driven by a local man, Heinz-Friedrich Peil, nicknamed "Bimbo." A later key figure in Opel's DTM campaign is driving a privately owned BMW M3 at this time: Volker Strycek from Bochum, the first champion of the German Production Car Championship in 1984, which two years later evolved into the German Touring Car Championship. Chapter Two. The Comeback. Three Decades Later. In 1990, two Opel Kadett GSi 16Vs compete in the German Touring Car Championship for the last time. The drivers are Peter Oberndorfer from Munich and Klaus Gohlke, the last East German circuit racing champion. The main focus has long been on the new Omega, a four-door sedan intended to close the gap to BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz – Ford withdrew after the 1989 season. The outgoing Kadett is holding its own, even though newcomer Gohlke suffers a total loss on the Berlin Avus circuit. Thirty years later, Steffan Irmler, a machinist and racing driver from Drebber in Lower Saxony, reflects on all these connections. Having grown up near the racing town of Diepholz, he gained his first experience as a race mechanic in the touring car team of Ludwig Linder from the Allgäu region in the mid-1980s, even before obtaining his driver's license. Linder's BMW 325i Group A sports gray diagonal stripes on a white background. When Steffan Irmler presents a self-built Opel Corsa A for the Veedol Endurance Cup on the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 1991, it is painted exactly like the famous original. A quarter of a century passed before Steffan Irmler, by then an independent entrepreneur, competed in historic touring car racing with an Opel Astra Supertouring – often partnered with Volker Strycek. And so a plan matured, taking shape in 2020: a Kadett Group A was to be completely rebuilt from the ground up, 30 years after its departure from the DTM. Chapter Three. The Rebuild. The Adventure Begins. With his Opel Kadett GSi 16V project, Steffan Irmler pursued a remarkably simple philosophy: his recreation was to be a faithful replica of the original, down to the last detail. Four trips to the British Isles in 2019 confirmed his approach. Competing in the Dunlop Saloon Car Cup, he drove an original Irmscher-built Opel Vectra Supertouring and met many like-minded enthusiasts who, like him, shared a common goal: historic touring car racing with vehicles built exactly as they were in their heyday. Back in Germany, Steffan Irmler procures pretty much everything he can find related to the DTM Kadett: construction plans, prototypes, new and old parts. Meanwhile, the bodywork takes shape. The same principle applies to it: it should be exactly like the 1988 model (... to be continued ... ) Want to read more? Sure, here: https://www.netzwerkeins.com/2023/04/...