Team Schnitzer

The motorsport team bearing their family name was founded in the early Sixties by Josef and Herbert Schnitzer.  It began as a development of the car sales/workshop business of their stepfather, Karl Lamm, in Freilassing, Germany, north-west of Salzburg.  This had been started by Herbert Schnitzer Snr. before WWII, developing over time into a dealership which represented both Ford and Opel, (and much later, Fiat).  Lamm took it over when Schnitzer died in the late Forties.  Of his stepsons, it was initially Josef who led the way on the track, in a Fiat Abarth 1000 Bialbero, competing in hill-climbing events during the ’63 season.   That included a victory at the OMK Junioren Pokal event at Freiburg, thus earning for Carlo Abarth one of the numerous win bonus payments from Fiat which were vital to Abarth throughout the Sixties – see https://davidbuckdenlooksback.blogspot.com/2026/04/one-last-fabulous-zagato-abarth-750.html   Already a BMW fan – he had briefly worked at the Munich factory in a vehicle proving role – Josef opted for a 1800 Ti in ’64.  Success with that encouraged the brothers to incorporate the BMW franchise into their business in ’65, while at the same time, running in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, (DRM), he finished sixth in its championship.  In ’66, with a 2000 Ti, he attained his career peak by becoming joint champion, (with Herbert Schultze), driving an Alfa Romeo 1600 GTA.  He then did what can be a racing driver’s toughest challenge – he retired while ‘on top,’ turning his full attention to co-management, with Herbert, of Schnitzer Motorsport, the team’s name formally adopted in ’67.  This post refers only to the Freilassing-based team – the Aachen-located enterprise, AC Schnitzer, focused on automotive tuning and founded by Herbert Schnitzer and Willi Kohl in ’87, is not covered.

 

Schnitzer Motorsport swiftly confirmed its potential by running Ernst Furtmayr in the European Hillclimb Championship with such expertise that he took the championship in ’68 and ’69 with a 2002 Ti, switching to a 2800 CS for ’70 to clinch the title for the third year in a row. And for ’71, Walter Brun took over and also became the year’s champion in a Schnitzer 2800 CS.

Ernst Furtmayr, BMW 2002Ti  EHC, ’69  Courtesy Artur Fenzlau/Erwin Jelinek

Indeed, ’71 truly became a significant season for Schnitzer Motorsport, with increased competitiveness in the European Touring Car Championship, (ETCC), resulting from the teams’ adoption of and effective modification of the Group 2 BMW E9 coupe in compliance with the regulations for the championship’s Division 3, (utilising a 2,996 cc version of the 6 cylinder M52 engine, which developed around 15 bhp more than that extracted from Alpina’s version). The other upgraded competitiveness factor was the quality of the drivers eager to drive for Schnitzer having perceived the potential of the car – Dieter Quester, Rauno Aaltonen, Helmut Kelleners and Gerrard Larrousse, in addition to Ernst Furtmayr. Quester scored a landmark international victory for the team by taking the Zandvoort Trophy, defeating the Ford factory’s potent Capri RS 2600 squad.

Quester leads the Capris of Glemser and Marko, Zandvoort, August ’71  Courtesy Paul Rutten

As the decade progressed, Karl Lamm’s son, known as Charly, was appointed as Team Manager. Under his leadership Schnitzer continued to build expertise and its reputation as a leading team in the Touring Car domain.  However, its ambition had also developed, and by ’75 embraced a desire to succeed in the different realm of single-seater racing. Initially, this saw the team focused on the preparation of BMW engines for the Formula 2 category. This was facilitated by good synergies between the DRM cars programme and Schnitzer’s engine supplier role, both utilising the 2.0 litre BMW engine. This 4 cylinder powerplant, originally designated M10 and credited to Alex von Falkenhausen, started out with a 1.5 litre capacity in ’59, and it had gone into production in ’62. It was an integral part of the Neue Klasse models programme, commonly held to have ‘saved’ BMW. The M10 was updated by Paul Rosche, becoming an even more key feature for BMW as in its M12 guise it was capable to delivering exceptional power outputs, culminating in the turbocharged version which powered Nelson Piquet’s Brabham BT52 to the ’83 drivers F1 World Championship. Its M12/13 engine was said to be giving over 800 bhp in qualifying that season – and, subsequently, in ’86, around 1,450 bhp! For Formula 2, Schnitzer designed and made its own twin-cam, 16 valve cylinder head, creating the 20-4 engine. With Kugelfischer fuel injection, the 20-4 ran with a compression ratio of 11.3:1, making 285 bhp at 9,200 rpm and 353 Nm torque at 6,200 rpm. The engine was in ’75 highly successful in chassis made by Martini, Elf and March. French driver, Jacques Laffite won 7 of the 14 rounds in a Martini Mk.16, taking the title and confirming the dominance of the Schnitzer engine.

F2 Martini-Schnitzer of Jacques Laffite, ‘75  Courtesy Benoit Flandre

The following year, Schnitzer secured an agreement with Toyota to prepare engines for the Japanese manufacturer’s rally activities in Europe. With both parties satisfied with the results, Toyota committed to a programme geared to a European sales promotional objective – participation in the high profile German DRM series with a Schnitzer-developed, turbocharged Celica Liftback. Built by Schnitzer to Group 5 specification to race in the DRM’s 1st Division, its 2.0 litre engine was based on the 18R-G unit, though with modifications as well proven on the BMW-based 20-4, i.e. 16 valves and Kugelfischer injection. It was however the addition of a KKK turbocharger which gave rise to eager anticipation of on-track success, as this endowed the car with 560 bhp of propulsive power, while body/chassis modifications enabled a significantly lowered kerb weight of just 860 Kg.

Toyota Celica Liftback Turbo  Courtesy Fastestlaps.com

The ’77 DRM season was however over halfway through before the Celica was ready, making its debut at Hockenheim, with Harald Ertl at the wheel, in July.  That fact alone probably confirmed that the whole development/preparation process had been far too hurried, so it was not surprising that the car was clearly outpaced by the several Porsche 935s with which it was competing.  Equally, an early retirement, on lap 5, was not unexpected.  At the next round, at Zolder, Ertl was again an early race retirement.  Subsequently, at the Nurburgring, he was at least able to record the car’s first finish, but only in fourth place, again unable to match the speed of the 935 contingent.  

Undaunted, Schnitzer wheeled the Celica out for a second season in the DRM.  By the end of ’78, however, it could be concluded that it had been a half-hearted effort.  Of eleven rounds, the Toyota took part in only five.  Driver, Rolf Stommelen, got the car to the finish in only one – at Mainz-Finthen – taking 8^th place.  Meanwhile, Ertl, who had endured a similarly miserable time the year before, won five rounds in a Schnitzer 320 Turbo, enough to see him clinch the championship.

Toyota Celica Liftback Turbo, ‘78

Harald Ertl, BMW 320 Turbo, ’78 DRM champion  Courtesy Bonhams Cars

The 320 remained a competitive proposition as the new decade began.  Hans Joachim Stuck demonstrated this at the ’80 Macau Guia Race.  Schnitzer provided the car run the previous year for Manfred Winkelhock, but with a normally aspirated engine in place of the turbo unit.  It had been driven at some ’80 events by Harald Grohs while still turbocharged.  Stuck took over around mid-season and was entered for the Asian event in November.  He took pole and then, the day previous to the Guia race, experienced a major engine blow-up.  After replacement, however, the car ran well enough for victory in the race.

Hans Joachim Stuck, Macau, ‘80

 

As the Eighties progressed however, Schnitzer’s focus switched to the BMW 6 Series Coupe.  The team’s reworking of the 635 CSi as a Group A Touring Car proved highly successful.  By ’82 the TWR Jaguar was seen as the car to beat, so BMW set to work to get the E24 635 homologated with a build programme of 5,000 cars, (5,118 in the event).  The regulations allowed for substantial modifications, including to the engine, which in normal road trim generated around 215 bhp.  To compete in Group A an output of near 300 bhp was seen as necessary.  To meet this objective, BMW turned to Alpina for a pure race version of the M30, (while other road-orientated 635 CSis utilised M90 and M88/3 variants).  The Buchloe-based tuner responded with modifications which took power up to over 290 bhp.  As with the M1 programme, BMW managed the creation and running of the works cars by complementing the work assigned to M Sport Division (transmission/running gear).  This took the form of a co-ordination of contributory development and manufacturing work by ‘outside’ specialists: Alpina (engine), Karmann (chassis/body), and Schnitzer, (assembly, preparation, race running).

Seen below is chassis #RA1-07. As described by ultimatecarpage.com, it ‘debuted with an outright victory in the Monza 500 km in the hands of Carlo Rossi and Dieter Quester. A regular podium finisher, it won again at the Nürburgring round of the European Touring Car Championship with Quester and Manfred Winkelhock behind the wheel. Schnitzer ended the year as European Champions and this chassis was retired from contemporary racing.'

#RA-07, Monza, ’83, Quester/Rossi  Courtesy BMW  Courtesy BMW

Fielded for the factory in Original Teile livery by Schnitzer Motorsport, this 635 CSi became a regular podium finisher and it won again at the Nürburgring round of the European Touring Car Championship with Quester and Manfred Winkelhock behind the wheel. Schnitzer ended the year as European Champions and this chassis was retired from contemporary racing. Retained by BMW, it is today part of the BMW Classic collection and regularly shown and demonstrated at events all over Europe.  Schnitzer fielded a second 635 CSi for Stuck and Walter Brun, finishing the season in 5^th place.  For ’84 the Schnitzer driver pairings were Stuck/Quester and Roberto Ravaglia/Gerhard Berger.  Despite such a strong driver line-up, the previous season’s success was not repeated.  However, it was one of the team who would soon come to personify the 1980s strength and competitiveness of the Schnitzer name – Ravaglia.  It was his victory, (in partnership with Berger and Surer), in ’85 at Spa, that saw a further elevation in the team’s standing, it being its first in a 24 hour event.  Adding to the kudos, a second Schnitzer 635 CSi crewed by Quester, Cecotto and Markus Oestreich was second, albeit 4 laps behind.

Winner, Spa 24 Hours, ‘85  Courtesy BMW

 

’86 saw a robust bounce back in the ETCC, Ravaglia taking the title by a margin of 8 points from Win Percy, who with Tom Walkinshaw was highly competitive throughout the season in the Bastos Texaco Racing Team’s Rover Vitesse.  Meanwhile, Quester, Altfrid Heger and Thierry Tassin won a second successive Spa 24 Hours for Schnitzer.

'86 Spa 24 Hours – winner, Dieter Quester

’86 ETC champion, Ravaglia (with Emanuele Pirro)  Courtesy Forza Forums

With many excellent performances in both individual races and championships, there could be no complaints at Freilassing about the suitability of the E24 as a basis for a good performing/handling race car. However, there was a need for a further competitiveness upgrade for ’87, given the anticipated speed of the M3 model adopted by Linder Motorsport and the Ford Sierra RS Cosworths of both Eggenberger Motorsport and Jolly Club. Thus, Schnitzer also prepared BMW M3s for the new season. With one of these, Jean-Michel Martin, Didier Theys and Eric van de Poele gave Schnitzer its third successive Spa 24 Hours triumph, while Ravaglia and the team became Division 2 World Touring Car champions. The WTCC proved to be just a one-off in the era, mainly because of poor organisation which itself resulted in an unexpectedly small (15) field of entered cars, the main contenders being BMW, Ford and Alfa Romeo. The following year, focus reverted to the ETCC, and, again, Ravaglia was on top in the championship in a Schnitzer M3, and with Quester and Heger, chalked up yet another 24 Hours victory at Spa.

’87 WTCC – champion, Ravaglia, M3, at the Nurburgring  Courtesy BMW

’88 Ravaglia, M3 at Silverstone  Courtesy BMW

Schnitzer finished up the decade impressively. Ravaglia steered an M3 Evo to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, (DTM), championship and contributed to a 24 Hours of Nurburgring victory, while Johnny Cecotto became ‘89’s Italian Touring Car champion. There had been 11 rounds in the DTM and throughout Ravaglia had been in a close battle with the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth of Klaus Niedzwiedz, eventually outscoring the Team Eggenberger star by just 11 points, with fellow Team Schnitzer driver, Fabien Giroix, in third place.

’89 Ravaglia, BMW M3 Evo, DTM champion  Courtesy BMW

That year BMW made 480 Johnny Cecotto Edition M3s.  These had some race car-like features including a 200 + bhp version of the S14 engine, front and rear spoilers and lightweight glass.

Johnny Cecotto Edition M3, ’89  Courtesy Stance Works

If Schnitzer had been pleased with its on-track exploits in the Eighties, they may well have moved on to being ecstatic about the following decade’s achievements.  Especially satisfying were the 24 Hour race victories at Spa in ’90 and ’95, at the Nurburgring in ’91 and ’98, and, most of all, Le Mans in ’99, (BMW V12 LMR, driven by Winkelhock, Yannick Dalmas and Pierluigi Martini).  As to Touring Car championships, Schnitzer took the Italian in ’90 and ‘91, (Ravaglia), Asia-Pacific ’94, (Winkelhock), Japan ’95, (Steve Soper), German Super ’95, (Winkelhock) and ’98, (Cecotto).  Also notable was a 1-2-3 at the ‘92 Macau Guia, (Pirro, Winkelhock, Ravaglia), and victory at the ‘99 12 Hours of Sebring, (Jörg Müller, JJ Lehto, Tom Kristensen).

’90 Spa 24 Hours  Courtesy Glyn Parham

'91 Nurburgring – M3 Evo 2  Courtesy © 2023 dailysportscar.com

’92 Macau – M3 Evo – 1-2-3

’99 Le Mans. The winning BMW V12 LMR #  Courtesy BimmerLife

 

Showing how the business had grown, this view of the team in ’99 speaks for itself

That ’99 triumph at Circuit de la Sarthe was attributed to ‘BMW Motorsport.’  This had become the Schnitzer team’s name on race entries and would remain in use intermittently for the rest of its active existence.  As the full-blown factory team, BMW Motorsport switched some of its focus to GT class racing in the U.S. and this resulted in its securing of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 2001.

Subsequently, the team was once again seen competing as ‘BMW Team Germany’ in the WTCC from ’05-’09.  This proved to be a highly rewarding programme, with many race victories recorded by drivers, Jörg Müller, Dirk Müller, and Augusto Farfus.  In ’05 both Jörg and Dirk Müller won 3 races each, with Dirk 2^nd and Jörg 5^th in the championship at year end.  Champion in ’05 was the UK BMW team and it repeated this achievement in both ’06 and ’07.  However, BMW Team Germany chalked up 5 wins in both ’06 and ’07, 3 in ’08 and 6 in ’09. 

From ’12-’16 focus moved to the DTM. Schnitzer driver Bruno Spengler secured the series title for himself and the Team and Manufacturer’s titles for Schnitzer and BMW respectively. Subsequently, Schnitzer ran the factory entries in the International GT Challenge, continuing to perform strongly and consistently, with, for example, a highlight Farfus win in the FIA GT World Cup, Macau, in ‘18, in a Schnitzer BMW M6 GT3.

’18 Schnitzer BMW M6 GT3, Macau  Courtesy BMW

Following the Macau win, Herbert Schnitzer Jnr. took over the teams’ management from Charly Lamm.  In ’20, success seemed likely to be ongoing, evidenced, for example, by a third place finish in the Nurburgring 24 Hours with a BMW M6 GT3 in the hands of Farfus, Jens Klingmann, Sheldon van der Linde and Martin Tomczyk.  However, in December of that year it was announced that BMW’s association with Schnitzer was at an end.  At the same time, a similar decision was made in regard to Team RBM.  With immediate effect, the development of a new BMW M4 GT3 and its running as from ’21 would be undertaken by BMW Team RMG, founded by Stefan Reinhold in 2010 and based at Niederzissen.  For Schnitzer it was the end.  Through its long standing dedication to a single ‘client,’ it had left itself vulnerable in the event that the client should decide ‘to go elsewhere.’  Equally, nonetheless, that focus/dedication had made for a highly successful collaboration and had enabled BMW to bask in the glory of a great many race and championship victories – the Munich giant had certainly had value for money!

Soon after the forgoing account was finalised, it was announced on 7^th June 2026 that, sadly, Herbert had died.