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'Zakspeed' is a motor racing team from Germany, founded in 1968 by Erich Zakowski. Their home town of Niederzissen is located not far away from the Nürburgring race track.

Contents

1973 to 1981: Saloon and sports car racing

1982 to 1989: Endurance cars and F1

1990s and beyond: Return to sports and touring cars

Difficulties

Complete World Championship Formula One Results

External links

1973 to 1981: Saloon and sports car racing

In the late 1970s, Zakspeed was the official Ford team in the German Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) series, a predecessor of the current DTM. The company constructed and entered an FIA Group 2 Escort and the Group 5 Capri, based on the MKIII production model. During this period, the Zakspeed team achieved a number of victories including the overall championship in 1981 with driver Klaus Ludwig (car shown right).
In the early 1980s, Zakspeed also prepared a Mustang for Ford USA's Special Vehicle Operations to race in the domestic IMSA Camel GT series. The Mustang chassis was based on the Group 5 Capri.

1982 to 1989: Endurance cars and F1

Their turbocharged engine from the Capri was later enlarged and used in the World Endurance Championship from 1982 onwards in the Ford C100. The Zakspeed-prepared machine was run by the works Ford Germany team with Klaus Ludwig, Manfred Winkelhock and Marc Surer at the wheel, but the car was a midfielder at best, although Jonathan Palmer and Desire Wilson scored a 4th place overall the 1000 km of Brands Hatch in 1982. Ford Germany retracted their support and one car was sold to privateers, while the other chassis was evolved by Zakspeed into the C1/4 and the C1/8, making few appearances in international racing, but becoming a front-runner in the German Interserie, where it won the championship in 1984 with Klaus Niedzwiedz.
The engine was the basis for their Formula One entry from 1985 to 1988. In spite of the team's engineering expertise, Zakspeed never managed to create a competitive chassis/engine package. Their first car, the 184, debuted in 1985, one year after the original plan, and was already outdated. Even with drivers such as the first Formula 3000 champion Christian Danner and ex-Tyrrell driver Martin Brundle, their best result was a 5th place in the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix, thanks to Brundle.
For their final season, in 1989, they had to use Yamaha engines as turbos were banned. The Japanese engine was unreliable and drivers Bernd Schneider (former German Formula 3 champion) and the rookie Aguri Suzuki struggled to pre-qualify the car. In the end, Zakspeed were notable for building their own chassis and engine, something only Ferrari did at that time, but with no competitive showings in five years, the team left Formula One and returned to touring cars, where they had once been at the top of the game.

1990s and beyond: Return to sports and touring cars

After withdrawing from F1, they ran Mercedes 190E and Opel Calibra cars in the 1990s Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft and the short-lived ITC series, now managed by Peter Zakowski who had taken over from his father after his Formula 3 career. His career as a driver did not lead him into the F1, but he was quick around the old Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in endurance races, winning the 24 Hours Nürburgring several times.
In 1998, Zakspeed entered two Porsche 911 GT1 in the FIA GT Championship , where French Team Oreca dominated the GT2-class with their heavily modified Chrysler Viper GTS-Rs. One of these Vipers was purchased by Zakspeed to be entered on the Nürburgring VLN series to take advantage of the new, less restrictive rules for the 1999 season. Zakowski and his teammate dominated the season, winning every race, before the rules were changed. The team has also won the 24 Hours Nürburgring again in 2001 and 2002.
A company related to Zakspeed, Nitec, built the NASCAR-like V8-powered tube frame prototype cars of the V8STAR Championship series which ran from 2001 to 2003. These identical cars used bodies modelled after road cars from Jaguar, BMW, Opel, Lexus and others. Zakspeed itself won in 2003 with Pedro Lamy in a Jaguar-bodied car.
In 2001, the Zakspeed team also made a brief return to single-seaters with a foray into Champcar racing in the US in partnership with the long-established Forsythe Championship Racing.
In 2006, the Zakspeed team returned to the FIA GT Championship with the Saleen S7-R. Currently, the company also runs a racing school operating at the Nürburgring circuit.

Difficulties

During September 2006 Peter Zakowski filed for bankruptcy at the bankruptcy court in Bitburg (Eifel). A related article appeared in the German sportscar magazine "Sport Auto", issue 01/2007. Whether or not this will have an impact on the racing team is currently not clear. Additionally, the 2006 Saleen that raced in Fia GT1 category was offered for leasing in several motorsport related magazines.
For 2007 the racing team originally planned to race 3 Mosler MT900 in FIA GT3 category. This failed due to a missing homologation through the FIA for this car.

Complete World Championship Formula One Results

() (results in bold indicate 'pole position')

Year	Chassis	Engine(s)	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Points	WCC
	Zakspeed 841	Zakspeed Straight-4			BRA	POR	SMR	MON	CAN	USE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	BEL	EUR	RSA	AUS	'0'	'NC'
				Jonathan Palmer		Ret	Ret	11			Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret		Inj	Inj
				Christian Danner													Ret	Ret
	Zakspeed 861	Zakspeed Straight-4			BRA	ESP	SMR	MON	BEL	CAN	USE	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	MEX	AUS	'0'	'NC'
				Jonathan Palmer	Ret	Ret	Ret	12	13	Ret	8	Ret	9	Ret	10	Ret	Ret	12	10	9
				Huub Rothengatter			Ret	DNQ	Ret	12	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	8	Ret	Ret		Ret
	Zakspeed 861 Zakspeed 871	Zakspeed Straight-4			BRA	SMR	BEL	MON	USE	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	ESP	MEX	JPN	AUS	'2'	'10th'
				Martin Brundle	Ret	5	Ret	7	Ret	Ret	NC	NC	Ret	DSQ	Ret	Ret	11	Ret	Ret	Ret
				Christian Danner	9	7	Ret	DSQ	8	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	9	9	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	7
	Zakspeed 881	Zakspeed Straight-4			BRA	SMR	MON	MEX	CAN	USE	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	'0'	'NC'
				Bernd Schneider	DNQ		DNQ	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	12	DNQ	13	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	DNQ
				Piercarlo Ghinzani	DNQ	Ret	Ret	15	14	DNQ	DSQ	DNQ	14	DNQ	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	Ret
	Zakspeed 891	Yamaha V8			BRA	SMR	MON	MEX	USA	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	'0'	'NC'
				Bernd Schneider	Ret	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	Ret	DNPQ
				Aguri Suzuki	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ

External links

★ Zakspeed Website

★ Zakspeed Formula One History and Team Record

★ Profile of the highly successful Zakspeed-built Group 5 racing Capri