Schnitzer Motorsport was a motorsport team based in Freilassing near Munich, Germany. From the early days of its establishment in 1967, the team mostly operated an automobile racing squad for BMW, and had remarkable results in touring car and sports car racing. The team would often run the cars for BMW under the name of "BMW Motorsport". In 2012, the team operated the DTM team for BMW under the name of "BMW Team Schnitzer".

On 4 December 2020, BMW announced that it would terminate its relationship with Schnitzer Motorsport after more than 50 years.

History The team was founded in 1967 by the brothers Josef (August 7, 1939 – August 31, 1978) and Herbert Schnitzer (June 5, 1941 – June 5, 2026). Their stepfather Karl Lamm had a car repair shop and dealer business. The brothers started racing in 1962, and Josef Schnitzer won the 1966 German Championship in a BMW 2000ti. In 1968, both retired from active race driving to focus on the business and the race team.

In the 1970s, the Schnitzer's younger half-brothers Karl ("Charly") and Dieter Lamm joined the team, with Charly Lamm acting as team manager at the race tracks. In 1978, Josef Schnitzer died in an accident, and Herbert Schnitzer remained as the boss.

Apart from having the BMW dealership and Motorsport team based in Southern Germany's Bavaria, they also owned a BMW tuning specialist concern in the far north near the border of Belgium and the Netherlands, in Aachen. As this city has the license plate code AC, they called this branch AC Schnitzer.

Since the 1960s, the Schnitzer team was mainly active with BMW and BMW M cars in Touring car racing, namely in the European Touring Car Championship, the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft and the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC).

In 1977 and 1978, Schnitzer tried to take on the mighty Porsche 935 in the DRM. They developed a Group 5, turbocharged silhouette version of the RA40 Toyota Celica and raced it with modest success. The best finish of the Celica LB Turbo was a fourth at Nürburgring in 1977, but with dismal reliability the next year Schnitzer withdrew and returned their focus to BMWs.

Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martini and Yannick Dalmas won the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans for Team BMW Motorsport in a BMW V12 LMR, operated by Schnitzer Motorsport.

In the 2000s, they mainly competed as "BMW Team Germany" in the WTCC with drivers Jörg Müller, Dirk Müller, and Augusto Farfus from 2005 to 2009.

Schnitzer was also active in Sports car racing and Endurance racing, e.g. the ALMS and Le Mans Series. On 26 January 2011 it was announced that Schnitzer Motorsport, under the name Team Schnitzer, would run Andy Priaulx's GT2 M3 in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

In 2012, BMW Team Schnitzer, along with BMW Team RBM, and Reinhold Motorsport GmbH, each line up with two BMW M3 DTM cars in the DTM.BMW Motorsport presents the teams for its DTM project. BMW Motorsport. 10 March 2011.

In September 2018, Charly Lamm announced that he would step down from his role at Schnitzer at the end of the year. He died unexpectedly on 24 January 2019.

In early 2021, the organisation began the process of being liquidated.

Major wins Championships 1978 Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (Harald Ertl, BMW 320i Turbo) 1983 European Touring Car Championship (Dieter Quester, BMW 635 CSi) 1986 European Touring Car Championship (Roberto Ravaglia, BMW 635 CSi) 1987 World Touring Car Championship (Roberto Ravaglia, BMW M3) 1988 European Touring Car Championship (Roberto Ravaglia, BMW M3) 1989 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (Roberto Ravaglia, BMW M3) 1989-1991 Italian Touring Car Championship (1989: Johnny Cecotto and 1990-1991: Roberto Ravaglia, BMW M3, BMW M3 Evolution) 1991 Nissan Mobil 500 Series (Emanuele Pirro, Joachim Winkelhock, BMW M3 Evolution) 1993 British Touring Car Championship (Champion: Joachim Winkelhock and Runner-up: Steve Soper, BMW 318i) 1994 Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship (Joachim Winkelhock, BMW 318i) 1995 Japanese Touring Car Championship (Steve Soper, BMW 318is) and 1995 Super Tourenwagen Cup (Joachim Winkelhock) 1998 Super Tourenwagen Cup (Johnny Cecotto), BMW 320i 2001 American Le Mans Series GT (Jörg Müller, BMW M3 GTR V8) 2012 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (Bruno Spengler) (BMW M3 DTM)

Races 1976 1000km Nürburgring (Albrecht Krebs, Dieter Quester, BMW 3.5 CSL) 1985-1986 Spa 24 Hours (Roberto Ravaglia, Gerhard Berger, Marc Surer, Dieter Quester, Altfrid Heger, Thierry Tassin) (BMW 635 CSi) 1988 Spa 24 Hours (Roberto Ravaglia, Altfrid Heger, Dieter Quester) (BMW M3) 1988-1991 Wellington 500 (Roberto Ravaglia, Emanuele Pirro, Johnny Cecotto, Joachim Winkelhock, BMW M3, BMW M3 Evolution) 1990 Spa 24 Hours (Johnny Cecotto, Fabien Giroix, Markus Oestreich, BMW M3 Evolution) 1991 24 Hours Nürburgring (BMW M3 Evolution) 1992 Guia Race (1–2–3 finish, Winner: Emanuele Pirro, Runner-up: Joachim Winkelhock and Third: Roberto Ravaglia, BMW M3 Evolution) 1992 Pukekohe 500 (Emanuele Pirro, Joachim Winkelhock, BMW M3 Evolution) 1994 Guia Race (1–2 finish, Winner: Joachim Winkelhock, Runner-up: Steve Soper, BMW 318i) 1998 24 Hours Nürburgring (BMW 320d) 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans (BMW V12 LMR) 2004-2005 24 Hours Nürburgring (1–2 finishes two years in a row, BMW M3 GTR V8) 2010 24 Hours Nürburgring (Jörg Müller, Augusto Farfus, Uwe Alzen, Pedro Lamy, BMW M3 GT2) 2018 FIA GT World Cup (Augusto Farfus, BMW M6 GT3)

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Entrant No. Car Drivers Class Laps 1972 Team Schnitzer-Motul 49 BMW 2800 CS René Herzog Hans Heyer TS3.0 70 DNF DNF 1976 BMW Motorsport GmbH Schnitzer Motorsport 43 BMW 3.0 CSL Albrecht Krebs Alain Peltier Dieter Quester Gp.5SP 117 DNF DNF 1997 Team Schnitzer BMW Motorsport 42 McLaren F1 GTR JJ Lehto Nelson Piquet Steve Soper LMGT1 236 DNF DNF 43 Éric Hélary Peter Kox Roberto Ravaglia 358 3rd 2nd 1998 Team BMW Motorsport 1 BMW V12 LM Tom Kristensen Steve Soper Hans-Joachim Stuck LMP1 60 DNF DNF 2 Johnny Cecotto Pierluigi Martini Joachim Winkelhock 43 DNF DNF 1999 Team BMW Motorsport Schnitzer Motorsport 15 BMW V12 LMR Yannick Dalmas Pierluigi Martini Joachim Winkelhock LMP900 366 1st 1st 17 Tom Kristensen JJ Lehto Jörg Müller 304 DNF DNF 2010 BMW Motorsport 78 BMW M3 GT2 Uwe Alzen Augusto Farfus Jörg Müller LMGT2 320 19th 6th 79 Dirk Müller Andy Priaulx Dirk Werner 53 DNF DNF 2011 BMW Motorsport 55 BMW M3 GT2 Augusto Farfus Jörg Müller Dirk Werner LMGTE Pro 276 DNF DNF 56 Joey Hand Dirk Müller Andy Priaulx 313 15th 3rd

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results (key) Year Entrant Car No Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Points 2012 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M3 DTM 7 Bruno Spengler HOC LAU BRH SPL NOR NÜR ZAN OSC VAL HOC 1st 149 8 Dirk Werner HOC LAU BRH SPL NOR NÜR ZAN OSC VAL HOC 9th 29 2013 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M3 DTM 1 Bruno Spengler HOC BRH SPL LAU NOR MSC NÜR OSC ZAN HOC 3rd 82 2 Dirk Werner HOC BRH SPL LAU NOR MSC NÜR OSC ZAN HOC 13th 30 2014 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M4 DTM 9 Bruno Spengler HOC OSC HUN NOR MSC SPL NÜR LAU ZAN HOC 11th 42 10 Martin Tomczyk HOC OSC HUN NOR MSC SPL NÜR LAU ZAN HOC 6th 49 2015 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M4 DTM 13 António Félix da Costa HOC1 HOC2 LAU119 LAU214 NOR112 NOR212 ZAN12 ZAN21 SPL113 SPL210 MSC111 MSC222 OSC13 OSC24 NÜR19 NÜR215 HOC111 HOC27 11th* 79* 77 Martin Tomczyk HOC1 HOC2 LAU112 LAU211 NOR16 NOR211 ZAN1Ret ZAN2Ret SPL1Ret SPL212 MSC117 MSC2Ret OSC18 OSC220 NÜR1WD NÜR29 HOC115 HOC210 19th 27* 2016 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M4 DTM 13 António Félix da Costa HOC17 HOC2Ret SPL122 SPL221 LAU115 LAU214 NOR19 NOR2DSQ ZAN16 ZAN217 MSC120 MSC219 NÜR120 NÜR219 HUN116 HUN23 HOC14 HOC2Ret17th43100 Martin Tomczyk HOC112 HOC29 SPL15 SPL219 LAU1Ret LAU218 NOR112 NOR210 ZAN119 ZAN211 MSC121 MSC223 NÜR116 NÜR212 HUN123 HUN29 HOC120 HOC21021st16 † Driver did not finish, but completed 75% of the race distance.

References

Bibliography

External links

The history of the Team Schnitzer - by AC Schnitzer official website