Much luckier in touring cars, GTs and sports cars, Zakspeed had a disappointing five-year stint in Grand Prix racing, from 1985 to 1989, achieving just one points finish.
After World War II, Zakowski’s family moved from Prussia and eventually settled in the town of Niederzissen, not far from the Nurburgring. There he trained as a mechanic and created his own workshop and eventually his own racing team.
From the beginning, Zakspeed was closely associated with Ford, racing touring and GT cars in Germany and elsewhere. The organization achieved huge success in the DRM – precursor to the DTM – with its extravagant Capris, while also competing in IMSA with Mustangs.
Zakspeed’s links with Ford reached their peak in sports car racing with the Ford C100, which was supposed to be the successor to the legendary GT40, with designer Len Bailey acting as a direct link between the two projects.
First seen at the 1981 Brands Hatch 1000km and later reworked by Tony Southgate, the car achieved poor results, despite being driven by contemporary F1 drivers Marc Surer and Manfred Winkelhock and Zakspeed regular Klaus Ludwig.
After Ford’s official involvement in the sports car project ended, Zakspeed continued to manage the car’s development under its own name.
The company took a different direction when it entered F1 in 1985 with an ambitious project that included its own 1.5-litre turbo engine, whilst continuing to race with some success in the DTM.
Initially the F1 team ran just one car for Jonathan Palmer, who was plagued by reliability problems. After being injured in a sporting accident at Spa, the Englishman was replaced by Christian Danner at the end of the season.
In 1986 Palmer was joined by Dutchman Huub Rothengatter and Zakspeed moved to two cars. Reliability continues to be an Achilles’ heel and neither driver manages to get above eighth place.
In 1987 Palmer was replaced by Martin Brundle, while Danner returned to drive the second car. By now the package was more competitive, thanks also to the migration of other smaller teams towards compressed air engines, coinciding with the start of the transition from turbochargers.
Brundle scored what would be the team’s only points, with fifth place in a high-octane race at Imola, and also finished seventh at Monaco.
For 1988 there was a change in the lineup, with the German Bernd Schneider joined by the veteran Piercarlo Ghinzani. Most teams had already switched to compressed air power and the now limited Zakspeed turbo was not competitive and cars often failed to qualify.
With turbos banned from Zakspeed, for 1989 Aguri Suzuki replaced Ghinzani and came with a supply of Yamaha atmo V8s. The team had slipped into the pre-qualifying group, and over the course of the entire season Suzuki never managed to get into the main field, and Schneider only managed to do so twice. These poor performances led to his retirement from F1 at the end of the season.
Zakowski subsequently passed the reins of the company to his son Peter, a successful driver in his own right, who continued to field Zakspeeds in a wide range of championships.
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