The last-chance saloon of Germany's forgotten tin-top champions

By:

James Newbold

May 15, 2020, 3:14 PM

The Opel Vectra GTS was the last in the line of the marque's DTM challengers, but failed to hit the lofty heights of its predecessors when financial constraints hit

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When the DTM resumed amid much fanfare in 2000, it wasn't Audi that took the fight to that year's dominant manufacturer, Mercedes. And it certainly wasn't BMW - the only marque left in the DTM as it stands next year following Audi's decision to withdraw - as it wasn't until 2012 that it made its long-awaited return.

Rather, it was Opel, which had won the last edition of the DTM under class one rules in 1996 with Manuel Reuter, that posed the biggest threat to Mercedes dominance. Reuter won four times in 2000 - only two less than runaway champion Bernd Schneider - to finish the season as runner-up, while fellow Astra Coupe drivers Joachim Winkelhock and Uwe Alzen added a further four between them, amounting to exactly a 50/50 split with Mercedes over the 16 races.

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James Newbold Autosport Plus Editor

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James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.