looking for info on 1980 Merc tourer

(not sure if this is the right forum to post this but you've got to start somewhere :) )

Some people I know are working on a replica of the Mercedes 450 SLC as it appeared in the 1980 European Touring Car Championship. What they need is some specific information on the car's 1980 tech specs (e.g. did it still have the automatic, or a manual Getrag 'box?), and some images of the car's livery. There are a few (very few) official images floating around but they only show the same two angles.

Perhaps one of you could help?

Thanks in advance.

Maybe you can ask in the Historic Racing & Racing History (http://www.ten-tenths.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=12) section of this forum.

Cyber can you show a pic of the original racing car?

this is the '78 car:

http://homepage.univie.ac.at/johannes.gauglica/amg78a.jpg

http://homepage.univie.ac.at/johannes.gauglica/amg78b.jpg

http://forums.atlasf1.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=10

Have you tried asking on the Atlas fourm?

My brother has some programs and newspapers from the Spa 24hrs, did it race there?

Might want to look here (http://etcc-history.it4us.nl/) too.

http://forums.atlasf1.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=10

Have you tried asking on the Atlas fourm?Not yet but I will. :)

My brother has some programs and newspapers from the Spa 24hrs, did it race there?No I dodn't think it did.

Might want to look here (http://etcc-history.it4us.nl/) too.And a very good site it is, but inadequate for our purposes I'm afraid; results aren't what we are looking for, tech. info is very sketchy, there are no 1980 images...:(

Fair enough but I always try to promote Frank's site because if he hasn't got some info you might like to send him what you know. That helps others too. ;)

Fair enough but I always try to promote Frank's site because if he hasn't got some info you might like to send him what you know. That helps others too. ;)That's right, and if you know anything about the 1980 Merc SLC, please let me know. ;)

Thanks everybody for all those compliments. My private car database is kindly hosted at http://www.thegaffer.com/motorsport/cars/mercedes/mercedes.php
You'll notice the 1978 SLC and the 1980 version.
The 1978 Mampe car was supposed to beat BMW. It had a 3-speed automatic gearbox which was the weak point, really. The car had a few top-3 finishes.
The car was entered again in some races in 1980 (!) where it surprisingly won the Nurburgring race. I haven't found out whether it had a manual gearbox by then.
Homologation papers would give a clue about that; the Danish Motorsports Union (http://www.dasu.dk/hishomo.asp) has many of them online. The 1980 500 SLC has homologation number 1706; it is possible that the 1980 Nurburgring winner was converted to this one. The car is homologated with either a 3- or 4-speed auto gearbox.
You could try to find the papers for the 450 SLC 5.0, I'm not that far yet.

German magazine Auto Motor und Sport had a tracktest of the 1978 car; I could scan that for you, but that will take a while.
According Spa: a 450 has raced there in group 1B form, with little success.

Your friends have to decide whether a 1978 or 1980 version should be built; the 1978 was a big effort with heavy publicity, in 1980 the car was raced without sponsorship in an ever further devaluated championship. I would go for the 1978 car, despite its victory in 1980.

Thanks to Jesper OH for pointing me to the homologation papers; 4 gigabytes of fun on my harddisk. Needs some sorting out though. Check out nr 1605, Ford Escort RS 1600, 79 pages long...

Ooh thanks for that link Frank. ;)

And Cybersddorf. Y'see I knew Frank could assist. :)

Right, now for the livery... :)

And, if anyone has the actual 1980 specs of that car, feel free to get pass them on, we promise we won't tell anyone. ;)