Absorbed by victory

摘要

When the starting light turns green, the earth literally shudders. That's when 21 eight-cylinder engines with around 470 hp each roar and catapult the racing cars, with silhouettes reminiscent of refined upper-class sedans, to 100 km/h in less than four seconds. It looks like pure chaos as the cars race toward the first curve, but the drivers somehow manage to get their Audi A4s, Mercedes-Benz C-Classes and Opel Vectras into some sort of order as they speed ahead, giving the numerous fans along the course an hour of racing at its best. Germany's DTM races guarantee exciting motor sports - the strict rules create largely equal competitive conditions. Still, the race cars with the star on the hood are usually the first to cross the finish line. That's when the champagne corks start popping. But the Mercedes team is not the only group doing the celebrating. Dirk Spohr, the head of Motorsports Technology at ThyssenKrupp Bilstein, also can give a satisfied smile. The reason: The four Mercedes C-Class vehicles in the Swabian HWA team, which is responsible for racing activities in the DTM, cruise from victory to victory using gas pressure shock absorbers produced by the tradition-rich company from Ennepetal. The excitement in the ThyssenKrupp Bilstein camp was especially great after the race on the Norisring in Nuremberg: The racing weekend attracted around 130,000 fans this year, and three Mercedes drivers shared the spots on the podium, each representing a car equipped with Bilstein gas pressure shock absorbers.