Group A Mercedes 190E 2.3

Ex Dr Helmut Marko racers from the glorious Group A era

Want a Mercedes racer with F1 World champion history for well under $100K?
Both cars mostly complete and in suprisingly good order.
Excellent European, Australian and a dash of USA race history too.
Eligible for Aust, UK & European Gp A / DTM Historic racing.
Priced aggressively to sell by motivated owner.

The 1986 DTM was a colourful year for the burgeoning series, made all the more so by the Commodore Computers / Lui sponsored 190E Mercedes of Dr Helmut Marko (Yes, the 1971 Le Mans winning and all time record holding, now manager of the ass-kicking, Red Bull F1 world champ team, Dr Helmut Marko.). Employing the enigmatic Olympic Gold Medallist Franz Klammer, stalwart Peter Obendorfer and the young F3 Champ Volker Weidler, the two team 190E's managed, 2 x 1st's, 3 x 2nd's and 1 x 3rd for the season. Between proven performer Dr Marko and the very popular Klammer, Mercedes and AMG were very generous with helping the team. In a short amount of time, Dr Marko's team were official Mercedes and AMG racers. Quite an honour.

Down in Australia, Bob Jane was the official Grand Marshall of the iconic Bathurst 1000 and was sinking some serious coin into making the event a success for his Bob Jane T-Mart tyre empire. Part of his plan for success, was backing a broad spectrum of vehicles, to further his media reach for the event. In a stroke of genius, he chartered Dr Marko to bring down his two beautiful white 190E's, with the very capable Klammer and Obendorfer in tow. Bob, with some help from his extensive Australian connections, lured F1, Can Am, BTCC and everything else in the racing world, winning legend Denny Hulme + up and coming hot shoe Andy Meidecke, to pair up with the esteemed tourists.

The 1986 event was the best and worst for the two team cars. With a new, beautiful coat of "Martin Filter" black paint, the cars both qualified well, but come race day, car # 14 of Meidecke and Obendorfer gave up after lap 1, while # 41 of Denny and Franz won their class and finished an amazing 9th overall!!!! Of the 5 x cars entered by Bob Jane, this was his best result. Oh, he did find his future wife, a lovely local lass... Which famously ended up being a shed-load more expensive than running the 5 cars at an enduro event...

It is mentioned in the 1986 Ch 7 Bathurst 1000 Telecast that the cars are staying in Aust, which was correct, with ownership passing over to the late Lynden Reithmuller. The cars were campaigned by Reithmuller and the talented driver/engineer Phil Ward in Group A, with another class win at Bathurst and 12th overall in 1990, with Ward and the great John Goss, the only man to have won the Australian Grand Prix and the Bathurst 1000 (1974 + 1985) driving. Ward later ran at least one of the cars in Supertourers, until being sold to USA's Ecurie Atlanta race team in 1996. By that stage, the cars were owned by Phil Ward. In the USA, they were managed by Rodney Butterfield and raced by Brit hot shoe Martin Stretton without much success and after just one round at the beautiful Lime Rock in Conneticut, the team folded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YuB0Qfh-4I&feature=related The car is featured at 8 mins, then 8.45mins.

The following might be why the team folded? 3.30 Mins in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzQJv0CnmI&feature=endscreen&NR=1

The cars were sold and kept at Mercedes Benz Autohaus Pompano until 2004, when bought as a package by the current owner. A gent with a passion for Mercedes but not too fussed about race cars. He has stored them in his barn, starting them occasionally, but that's about all they do now. The cars have been a team since 1986, after 26 years together, it would be nice if they could stay together. A special price will be set for the person keen to buy both, as dividing the cars spare parts package and working out which car won which race in Europe, Australia and USA would be very hard!!!

The pics of the cars in black are from 1986, when they were owned by Bob Jane and raced by Denny Hulme, Franz Klammer, Jorg Van Ommen and our own Andy Mediecke.The pics in white with numbers 18 and 08 are of the cars, as they sit now in the USA.

They are still in the USA and I inspected them in 2011. They are in suprisingly good condition, both run and have a large spare parts package.

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