Mercedes-Benz C11
A Mercedes -Benz C11 Mercedes -Benz Museum in Stuttgart
The Mercedes -Benz C11 was a Group C prototype, which was introduced in 1990 for the World Sportscar Championship. Built by Sauber Motorsport in Switzerland race car was a development of the Sauber C9 and was created by in the predecessor used biturbo charged five-liter V8 Mercedes -Benz M 119 HL, the racing version of M 119 ( "HL " stands for high performance), driven, which was further increased in the C11 power. With it wore for the first time since the W 196 in 1955, when Mercedes got out of motorsport, a race car again officially named " Mercedes -Benz ".
History
The C11 debuted at the first round of the World Sportscar Championship in 1990. Sauber appeared at Suzuka with a C11 and a Sauber C9 from the previous year, and a further C9 as a replacement vehicle. However, the C11 by Jean-Louis Schlesser and Mauro Baldi had an accident in training. Schlesser and Baldi switched to the replacement vehicle. In the second race at Monza, the team announced two C11 and took the first two places. Except for the following championship race at Silverstone, the car won that season in all races and so Clean won the constructors' world championship for sports cars in 1990.
Although the Sauber-Mercedes team had been run in 24-hour race at Le Mans in 1989 with the C9 overall victory, it decided not to participate this year because, as the race was not in the race calendar of the World Sportscar Championship and you look at it wanted to focus, to win the world championship.
In 1991, in the group C, the consumption equation by which the engine design is free, but the fuel consumption may not exceed 60 liters per 100 km are abolished, were instead, as prescribed in Formula 1, 3.5-liter naturally aspirated; Race cars with turbo engines were indeed still allowed, but penalized by various restrictive measures. The C11 should be replaced by tailored to the amended regulations Mercedes -Benz C291, therefore, was, however, used 291 because of problems with the new 180 -degree V12 Mercedes -Benz M in the first rounds of the World Sportscar Championship in 1991. Until he was completely replaced, the C11 three class victories over the new C291 reached.
The Mercedes -Benz C11 should have said, as a successor to the Sauber C9 actually " C10 ", due to the difficult pronunciation of this name it was decided, however, to skip ten.