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Unfortunately for Mercedes, the competition in 1996 proved marginally too much. The C-Class of that year was essentially a brand new machine that had evolved from the successful design of the previous two years. Sadly, with active suspension now banned as a cost-cutting measure, the car did not have the same consistency over the whole season. Bernd Schneider - Mercedes lead driver - managed to finish a close second in the championships however. The final round was held at Suzuka, Japan in November. Schneider's team mate (and future Champ Car star) Dario Franchitti won the first heat in spectacular fashion. Schneider himself took victory in the second. Unbeknown at the time, this was to be the last ITC race ever. The growth of the series onto the world stage had dramatically escalated the costs involved. High-tech Class 1 was expensive as it was, let alone expanding the series over three continents. Both Opel and Alfa decided they could no longer afford to race and the series collapsed. In total, the C-Class took 32 DTM/ITC victories in 3 years. Mercedes were keen to keep up the momentum of this success and looked around for a new challenge. Class 1 technology was applied to the world of international sportscar racing with the fantastic CLK-GTR, resulting in two world titles in 1997 and 1998. This program culminated in two shots at the Le Mans 24hr race in 1998 and 1999. In 2000, the DTM was resurrected as a national series. Whilst the technical regulations no longer allow the kind of technical freedom of the Class 1 days, the machinery is still very impressive. Again, Mercedes-Benz took the plunge with the AMG-built CLK-DTM, based on the very latest C-Class model. This has been repaid with a string of yet more wins for the Stuttgart marque....
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