Is DTM done?

From the DTM Twitter:

And some vintage DTM action for you.

That would suck, but I also don't think that all professional motorsports are going to survive this anyway.

Well that stinks. On the other hand, it's not unexpected. As they say, when the tide goes out, you find out who's naked (DTM, Hypercar (not yet)...what else?)

I didn't know they even existed so, maybe? 

There is going to be a lot pain to spread around the racing organizations before this is all said and done. 

DTM has been on life support for years.  OEM's have been coming (rarely) and going (frequently) for a while.  It's simply priced itself out of the market.  There are better options (GT3, GTE) where they can spend their resources for far better return as many of your customers are wealthy gentlemen drivers.  When you've got an (effectively) domestic championship which costs more to run in the Indycar, it's going to be a tough sell.  Add in the morons that gave us Dieselgate and VAG have been back peddling on motorsport spending (outside of Formula E) for a while now.  Add in COVID and it's no big surprise.  

RIP.

Dtm the last few years has been hard to watch.

While the btcc has stayed somewhat true to its roots, dtm kinda turned into spec racing with f1 car technologies and aero upgrades.

The racing seemed like it was difficult for people to pass due to aero sensitivities. 

In other words, if dtm decides that it would be better off having more "stock" car racing with limited development, I wouldn't hate that.

In the video you'd think they were rally cars the way those drivers jumped curbs .

That's a shame.  Although I've never watched a whole race, from what I understand the current cars are like Super GT's GT500 class: every one is a carbon tub with a high tech 600hp 2.0T.  Far from what touring car racing was, I can see that getting expensive quickly.  There also was a new Aston Martin team that only competed for a single season.

 I for one will miss DTM if it goes away. Not so much these days but back in the 80s it was some of the best racing out there as BMW, MB an Audi battled it out.  Things are changing very quickly.  

Feedyurhed said:

 I for one will miss DTM if it goes away. Not so much these days but back in the 80s it was some of the best racing out there as BMW, MB an Audi battled it out.  Things are changing very quickly.  

In the 80s they also raced homologation specials, so you could at least pretend that you could buy an M3 or 190 like you watched race.  Now, it's the same generic boring tubeframe silhouettes that share nothing with a production car other than the manufacturer's logo.

Didn't this happen during the V6 AWD era of ITC during the  mid 90s?

They've gone away and come back before. I'm sure somehow they'll change formats or be replaced by a similar series. Someone was speculating they could go to GT3 cars, I'm not sure the world needs another GT3 series, but hey I guess it could work.

I think they should scrounge up a bunch of old crapcans and convert them into race cars for under $500. That would be a great racing format. 

Maybe the IROC series with all the same cars rented at Frankfurt airport , driven to the "Ring" . then raced and returned to Frankfurt airport , 

Something  the old top gear would do but with 10-15 of the top drivers.......

PS.....yes close down a few Autobahns for the hour or 2   when they drive to the Ring......

In reply to David S. Wallens :

That looks like pretty wild stuff.

Late 80s and early 90s DTM races were incredible, based on my YouTube watching.  The whole "if you aint rubbin you aint racin" was definitely not unique to NASCAR. 

In reply to Loweguy5 (Forum Supporter) :

I love mine. Not a true DTM car, of course. But as close as I'll ever get. 

Maybe invite back all the champs of years past. Try to Even the field. And have a battle royal of "king of the DTM". 

_ said:

Maybe invite back all the champs of years past. Try to Even the field. And have a battle royal of "king of the DTM". 

Check out the German "touring car revival" series: https://www.tourenwagen-revival.de/

You may remember that a few years ago the nascar/grandam singed a deal with dtm to develop a North American series for class 1 cars. I wonder if It could now go the other way and dtm adopt nascars new gen 7 car 

MotorsportsGordon said:

You may remember that a few years ago the nascar/grandam singed a deal with dtm to develop a North American series for class 1 cars. I wonder if It could now go the other way and dtm adopt nascars new gen 7 car 

Didn't it also include a series in Japan?  Once I heard IMSA was going to drop the DP cars, that whole thing just petered out, which was kind of sad.  Then again, having all the cars be the same other than the stickers, well.....  It kind of works for open wheel cars, it less works for ensurance racing- but I don't see it working at all when the different manufacturers are supposed to be racing each other.

That's really sad....

alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:

Didn't it also include a series in Japan?  Once I heard IMSA was going to drop the DP cars, that whole thing just petered out, which was kind of sad. 

For a few years there were talks of DTM and Japan's Super GT having joint races, and it finally happened last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmXauhNEHX0

Interesting you mention GrandAm because the Mooncraft Shiden is the only DP-related chassis I know to race outside the Rolex series.

Wow, I've spent ages looking for this.  I remember posting something about one of the old 90's MErcedes DTM cars.  I eventually found it by going to the beginning of 'my comments' and working back from page 168 back to page 157.  Unfortunaly I didn't post a scan of the article, but here are some specs I posted back then.

1994.  Yes 260 years ago, Mercedes C class DTM car. Stunning level of technology for the day, they call it the most technically advanced race car ever built. A brief look at the specs shows.

• ABS
• Traction control
• Active yaw control
• Active suspension (tested but never raced due to weight
• 2.5l naturally aspirated V6 430hp @ 11,500rpm
• 225lb/ft @ 9,000rpm
• 1029kg (2275 lb's) - 5.3 lb's/hp
• Engines could be swapped in a 15 mins break between races while also doing other prep work, that's not like the mythical NASCAR engine swaps during the race as this is front/mid location buried in a carbon fiber bulkhead under the front screen- dry break hydraulic fittings and preheated engines for engine changes
• Carbon fiber driveshaft (this was 94 remember) that vibrated if you got the rev's below 5,000rpm
• 6 speed transaxle with ignition cut for flat shifting with it's own hydraulic system
• Water cooled brakes
• Active anti roll bars that would change stiffness between corners and straights
• Active aero that would close cooling doors in the front and create massive down force due to drag for braking into corners
• Active weight distribution was also tried (a weight moved forward or backwards for braking or accelerating) but was not raced.

Just amazing for the time, the costs were out of control so the technology got reigned in.
People often ask about the benefit of racing, well Mercedes wanted to draw in a younger group of buyers, this did it bringing the average down from 55 to 45 within a decade.