How a DTM failure became an unlikely Nurburgring conqueror

"When the idea came up to do it with a DTM car, it was like a silence in the room," remembers Timo Scheider. "It was like, 'Are you serious?' We were thinking, 'That will be a challenge.' In the beginning there was a feeling of, 'Let's try it. If we quit after three laps, we quit after three laps.' It was a bit like this."

"Everybody was laughing because to get a DTM car reliable for 24 hours at the Nordschleife, it's a big project!" adds Manuel Reuter. "But in the end, we showed it was worth it."

The incredulity that the two 2003 Nurburgring 24 Hours winners recall on hearing the news that Opel would be entering two factory-run DTM cars for that year's race was widely shared.

There have been several improbable victories in 24-hour endurance races over the years. In 2003 alone, GT2-spec Porsches twice prevailed outright by respectively beating the new and therefore hideously unreliable Daytona Prototypes at the Daytona 24 Hours and the faster GT1 cars in a wet Spa 24 Hours that is best remembered for Stephane Ortelli's miraculous fuel-saving feat.

But in both instances, the winning car - while a surprise - was still a thoroughbred endurance racer doing the task it was designed for. The same can't be said of the Opel Astra Coupe, which was only ever intended for 40-lap blasts around Hockenheim and Oschersleben.

Merely getting it to the finish of the most gruelling endurance race of them all would be no mean feat. But against a proven warhorse in the Zakspeed-run Chrysler Viper that had won the N24 in three of the previous four years, Schnitzer's formidable M3 GTR - effectively outlawed from the American Le Mans Series after dominating in 2001 - and DTM rival Audi, whose TT had consistently proven to be the better package, Opel's chances of success appeared minimal.

"Nobody was believing in us that we were capable of bringing a car to the track with which we are capable of fighting for a win," agrees Reuter. "It was designed for sprint races."

The DTM was reborn in 2000 after a three-year hiatus, and after a strong maiden season, in which Opel matched Mercedes' win tally and Reuter finished second in the drivers' standings, the marque's fortunes had plummeted.

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By 2003, it had been usurped by Audi and managed only one podium that year with Peter Dumbreck's 2002-spec car at the Lausitzring. Opel's motorsport activities were headed up by Volker Strycek, who needed a big result to justify the DTM programme's continued existence.

"At this time, it was not easy inside Opel because the rumours came up that we might stop in DTM," says Reuter. "In 2001 and 2002, they were really bad years for us and we were never as competitive as in our first year, so with this project we had something to prove."

"There was nothing comparable to a DTM race-weekend car. To win on the Nordschleife you need a car which is easy to drive to avoid mistakes" Timo Scheider

Scheider describes Strycek as being "addicted to the Nordschleife", while Reuter reckons the Nurburgring programme was designed "to fulfil a dream for Volker personally". Indeed, Strycek, the 1987 N24 runner-up, would join Opel DTM men Reuter and Scheider alongside former Merc DTM driver Marcel Tiemann in the #5 Astra, and was also entered in the #6 car alongside Dumbreck, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Christian Menzel.

If the car wasn't best suited to the job, Opel did at least have an ace up its sleeve in Team Phoenix, whose Porsche had in 2000 set a new distance record in the hands of Uwe Alzen, Michael Bartels, Altfrid Heger and Bernd Maylander.

"Teamwise, we knew how a project like this should be run and how everything should be developed," recalls Reuter (below), himself no stranger to 24-hour race success, having won at Le Mans in 1989 and 1996. "We said, 'When we do it, we should do it properly.'"

Extensive modifications to the gearbox, aerodynamics - Reuter points out that the Astra was "quite a draggy car, so we were not really good in top speed" - and suspension were conducted, which Scheider says made the car heavier and more like a GT to drive.

"That's what it needed to be," he says. "We had to set up a proper endurance car; there was nothing comparable to a DTM race-weekend car. To win on the Nordschleife you need a car which is easy to drive to avoid mistakes. If you have a car which is too edgy then it's more difficult."

The V8 engines that had been used since 2000 were designed to last a season without being changed, and Reuter confirms that the Opel block was "quite safe" on engine life. "We ran a little bit more horsepower than in the DTM specification," he says, "but the big concerns were about the gearbox, the differential and small things like the starter - because this package was never developed for 24 hours. These were the small things which in the end of the day can make a big difference."

Opel organised a 24-hour test at Jerez, and Reuter believes it was well prepared for the event. "We were expecting something when we entered," he admits.

Still, Reuter was expecting the "bloody quick" M3s to be hard to beat, and they probably would have been without the faux pas that eliminated both from contention on lap one.

In the atypically warm (for the Nurburgring) conditions, Schnitzer had placed dry ice in the radiator duct to avoid overheating on the warm-up lap, but it thawed and split the pipes leading to the gearbox oil cooler. As Autosport reported, "the result was a loss of lubricant and a rapid gearbox failure on both cars". Both were recovered to the pits after lengthy delays, only to retire for good after accidents.

Once the polesitting Porsche featuring Alzen and Bartels was delayed by gearbox woes, and an extraordinary row over the Viper's fuel-tank capacity - Zakspeed had attempted to circumvent a rule reducing it from 120 to 90 litres by rebranding the car as a Dodge - meant it had to serve two five-minute penalties, the race boiled down to an Opel-versus-Audi slugfest.

Both were down to one contender after Bleekemolen's Opel was sideswiped by a tardy Renault Clio, while Audi's challenge was blunted by problems resulting from a puncture for its second car.

Karl Wendlinger, an Audi DTM regular at the time, believes the TT had the pace advantage over a stint, but reckons the odds weren't quite so heavily weighted in Audi's favour as it lacked the works blessing of Joest's Le Mans effort.

"It was an entry from the Abt Audi team with not so much help from the factory," recalls the Austrian. "In 2004, there were a lot more Audi engineers around to support, but in 2003 it was not such a big effort. On the other hand, Opel had a lot of experience there, and also with a lot of experienced and very good drivers, so I rated them quite highly."

"The driver line-up was very good," agrees Scheider. "It was a line-up of some clever drivers because you don't need to be always the quickest on track, but you need to be smart."

"The Nordschleife and DTM cars, it was quite a weird project. But this was the challenging thing and it's even nicer to win it with a project like this" Manuel Reuter

Still, it wasn't perfect. After Strycek got stuck in the gravel at 4am, requiring a new alternator belt, the Opel had to launch a fightback. But Wendlinger was confident that the Audi would have enough in hand, with its Michelin tyres expected to be stronger than Opel's Dunlops. "On Sunday morning when it finally showed it will be a fight between Opel and Audi, the team said, 'We have good tyres, don't worry,'" he says.

Reuter isn't so sure: "In the hot conditions, the Dunlop was basically on the same performance as the Michelin," he says. "After 12 hours, we were basically separated by one or two seconds from the Audi. It was really a tough fight during the night."

In the end, the tyre question proved academic when the Audi needed a new gearbox with four hours to go - which came as a surprise to Wendlinger.

"It wasn't a weak point on the car," he says. "We weren't very worried about the gearbox before the start of the race, it just happened."

Reuter points out that Audi "had basically the same base concept like gearbox, differential and so on", so credits Opel's success to doing a better job "to adapt the car properly to the needs and the demands of the Nordschleife".

Reuter duly took the car to the flag, notching up a remarkable success made all the more special by the context of its struggles.

"The Nordschleife and DTM cars, it was quite a weird project," he says. "But this was the challenging thing and it's even nicer to win it with a project like this."

"This was for sure one of the biggest highlights in my career," adds Scheider (below, right with Tiemann). "It's always good to enter the paddock at the Nurburgring and read your name on this wall of fame."

Reuter reckons the win gave Strycek "a little bit of credit" with his masters at General Motors, ultimately made little difference to Opel's long-term DTM future. The Astra was replaced by the Vectra for 2004, but it struggled to warm its tyres in qualifying and had a narrow performance window, only managing a single podium with Reuter at Oschersleben.

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It was announced at the end of 2004 that Opel would be leaving the DTM at the end of the following year, although Heinz-Harald Frentzen twice visited the rostrum.

The Astra would get a final run-out at the Nordschleife in 2004, but it ended with a dominant 1-2 for Schnitzer in wet-dry conditions as the defending winner could only muster tenth place.

"In 2003 was a good time to do it," says Wendlinger. "The Schnitzers had problems right at the beginning of the race and I think their car was more made for the Nordschleife than our DTM cars."

Nevertheless, Strycek had made his point. The Opel's place as one of the unlikeliest 24-hour race winners ever was secure.