AutoArt 1:18 2007 Mercedes-Benz C-Class DTM "Original Teile" Schneider #1

Mercedes Benz has been making cars for over 100 years and has been racing them almost from the beginning. And also like many manufacturers MB saw the value of not only building and racing “purpose built” pure racing cars but also in building and competing with racing versions of their passenger cars.

Sedan or Saloon racing has been around about as long as automobiles themselves and those early battles of neighbor verses neighbor to see who had the better car is really the essence of motorsports.

There are all manner of regional sedan series around the globe that have fostered highly competitive racing. From Japan to Australia to South Africa to the United States to Europe there always seems to be guys in cars that look something like a car in the showroom out there “swapping paint”. At its base, NASCAR is, or at least started out as, a sedan racing series.

In 2000 a reformed DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) series took over for the ITC championship with Mercedes Benz, Audi and Opel as the contestants. They set up the series much like NASCAR in that the cars were not really stock at all, used many identical parts and were all “tweaked” so that no body type had an aerodynamic advantage over another. All cars are rear wheel drive and restricted to 470 horsepower.

The MB C class and the Audi A4 have taken turns winning the championship while Opel has fallen by the wayside.

Autoart has as part of the Motorsport series brought us the DTM racer of Bernd Schneider and a very interesting car it is. It is basically silver with graphics that seem to show the body peeling back from the nose to expose the engine and other “ghost” graphics around the car. As it is with most modern race cars it is also loaded with all manner of sponsor graphics, which you will either enjoy or not. What you will enjoy is the quality of the paint and graphics. Autoart in general does an excellent job finishing its cars and this one is no exception. Every logo name and bit of lettering on the car, and there is a ton of it, is perfect.

The car is loaded with little details, scoops, fins, wings, air dams all nicely executed. The wheels and tires are excellent as well with some nice detail work on the brake disks and rotors. The interior, or what you can see of it through the windows, looks to be excellently done and detailed.

And that is where the problem lies as you cannot get a closer look at the interior, or anything else under the skin of this car, because it is a sealed model. And that really is a pity because this is a car that you would really like to get a closer look at.

Still what you can see is first class and if you are a MB fan or are into modern “sedan” racing this one is worth your consideration.

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