SAUBER MERCEDES-BENZ C11 Chassis 89-00

The Mercedes-Benz C11 was a Group C prototype race car introduced in 1990 for the World Sportscar Championship. Built by Sauber as a successor to the Sauber C9, the C11 used the same Mercedes-Benz M119 5.0L Turbocharged V8 from the C9. It was the first time that Mercedes-Benz chose to put their name on the car, instead of simply using Sauber. Debuting at the first race of the 1990 World Sportscar Championship season, the car did not actually race, choosing instead to run only in practice while the team used the reliable C9 from the previous year. However, for the 2nd race the C11 did race, and was able to successfully come home with first and second. Throughout the rest of the season, the C11 won all but one race and easily took the team's championship for the year. Although Sauber-Mercedes had been successful in winning the 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans, the team choose not to defend the title in 1990 due to the race not being part of the World Sportscar Championship schedule. The team chose instead to concentrate on winning the championship. Although the C11 was to be replaced by the Mercedes-Benz C291 for the 1991 World Sportscar Championship season, problems with the C291's new engine led Mercedes-Benz to continue to campaign the C11 alongside the C291. The C11 was able to gain three more class wins in the 1991 season before the C291 fully replaced it.

Chassis number C11-89-00 was built towards the end of the 1989 season by Team Sauber, and was the first Leo Ress designed C11 to be built. It was also the first Sauber built car to be allowedto use the the Mercedes-Benz name.

It transpired that the FIA changed the Group C regulations in the later part of 1989, and so rather than modify this chassis, Sauber decided to use it as the prototype C11 test car as they had planned to build a test car anyway. Five further C11 race cars were subsequently built.

C11-89-00 was used at 10 tests with all the official factory drivers driving it at some point:

Mario Baldi 6 times

Michael Schumacher 5 times

Jochen Mass 5 times

Jean Louis Schlesser 5 times

Heinz H. Frentzen 2 times

Karl Wendlinger 2 times

Although 89-00 was never raced, all the major development work on aerodynamics and general chassis setup for the C11 programme was carried out with this car.

POA