After a 30 year hiatus from endurance racing due to
the 1955 tragedy at Le Mans, Mercedes thought enough time had passed to win
there again. Drivers Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens won the
1989 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in their Sauber-Mercedes C9.
It was a good day for both Mercedes-Benz and Sauber.
The winning number 63 car finished ahead of its sister car driven by Mauro
Baldi, Kenny Acheson and Gianfranco Brancatelli. Two laps behind was the
third-place Joest Racing Porsche 962C; a car which had won at Le Mans six
previous times.
The Sauber C9 was a Group C prototype that debuted
in 1987 season. It was developed from a series of Le Mans Prototypes by Peter
Sauber. The underpinnings of the C9 were an all-aluminum monocoque with a rear
steel subframe for the Mercedes-Benz engine.
Due to fuel restrictions at the time, the engine was
made as efficient as possible. The production-based block was developed by
Swiss engineer Heini Mader. It had a peak power of 720 bhp, but the unit was
limited to 650 or less to conserve fuel.
During the development year in 1987, the cars were
fielded by Kouros Racing with little success. Once Mercedes-Benz made it an
official team in 1988, five victories were scored despite heavy pressure from
the Silk Cut Jaguar team.
In 1989, the car was developed to its ultimate
specification including a new DOHC-head M119 V8 engine. That season, the C9s
dominated at every race, winning outright at all but one event. At the 24 Hours
of Le Mans, a record was set at 398 km/h on the Mulsanne Straight.
After the string of successes including winning the
1989 World Sports Car Championship, Autosport declared the C9 as their Racing
Car Of The Year. The team moved on and replaced the model with the C11 of 1990.
