1999 Le Mans: The Time The Guys At Mercedes-Benz AMG Accidentally Built A Flying Car!
They say you need wings to fly. Really? The guys at RedBull or even Icarus could definitely learn one or two things from the guys back at AMG.
Another century is just a couple of months away and to mark this, the guys at Mercedes-Benz decided to design a flying car, or did they?
This is the story of the iconic Mercedes Benz CLR.
In order to compete in many internantional races and win, the CLR was Mercedes-Benz’s answer to this.
Most known for it’s participation in the 1999 Le Mans race where it took flight on three seperate occassions, the car was nothing but a testament to German engineering featuring a 5.7-liter naturally aspirated V8 engine slightly based on the already legendary M119 engine tuned by AMG! Every square inch of the car was designed with precision in mind to enable maximum performance and after about 35,000 km of extensive testing without any major incidents, the car was unveiled on the 20th of April, 1999.
For the 1999 24-hour Le Mans race, Mercedes had a team of 3 drivers with each driving their own seperate CLR.
The car’s maiden flight took place during the qualifying session on the iconic Circuit de la Sarthe in France, with Mark Webber behind the wheel where the car suddenly became airborne with no warning whatsoever while trying to overtake causing the car to flip before eventually landing on its wheels and crashing into a safety barrier at the side of the track. Miraculously Werber was mostly unhurt and funny enough, ‘that first crash was not corvered by any still photography or any vision.’ (Webber, 2020).
Fortunately, Mercedes was able to quickly rebuild Webber’s car with parts from a fifth test car and it was ready in time for the next race where tragedy struck. The car took flight again with Webber behind the wheel, AGAIN while doing the warm-up going at about 280 km/h. ‘Once again the front of the CLR got light and it took off. I just could not believe that it could happen again.’ “We’ve got a car on its roof already!” “How on earth did this happen?!” cried the commentator during the live Eurosport broadcast after the sudden jump cut to Webber’s car, which was upside down and spread out in chunks across the pavement with stewards all around spraying the fire extinguisher and trying to rescue Webber.
Miraculously, Webber survived again, with minor injuries. Furious, this MARKed the end of Webber with not only the Mercedes CLR but also his association with Mercedes racing.
Later that same afternoon, one of the two remaining CLR’s still on the track took flight.
Bro, I can’t even imagine how bad of a day it was for the team at Mercedes-Benz AMG.
While Peter Dumbreck was behind the wheel trying to overtake the Toyota that was in second place, his car did the unthinkable. Like film trick his car was in the air and it actually managed to do four full somersaults before crashing into a bush next to the track and this time, one of the cameras actually happened to have captured the whole thing live.
Miraculously, Dumbreck survived without any major injuries.
But the question still remains, “Why exactly were these cars flying?”
The car’s bodywork was said to be the major culprit as it was done in such a way that it was longer than usual. This meant that whenever the car was going over a bump or a crest while at high speeds, the air that got underneath the car actually became strong enough to push the car up.
After, Dumbreck’s crash, Mercedes immediately pulled the remaining cars out of the race and didn’t make a comeback to Le Mans for about 20 years.
Regardless of this car’s three crashes, something that most people often overlook is how safe the car actually was as all three drivers survived the crashes with minor injuries, keep in mind they were going at speeds of almost 200 mph.
They say in order to fly, you need wings and in turn, Redbull’s tags its slogan as ‘Redbull gives you wings’.
They definitely can take pointers from Mercedes in the 90’s
