That´s Where The Stag Bugles

The Schloss Dyck Classic Days in the Rhineland at the gates of Düsseldorf are often described as the “German Goodwood”. However, the castle in Dyck acts as a backdrop for the dazzling appearance of noble old-timers instead of for the grandiose but no less elegant mansion of the Earl of March. And whereas in Goodwood motorsports heroes with their elderly racers drive to the finishing line over a hill-climb, a circular route along cordoned-off roads is available in Dyck. What the two events do have in common is their unique flair and an invitation to travel through time into an automobile era which chroniclers nowadays call the heroic – and not only in the motorsports sense. The colourful capers of the Classic Days marked its eleventh anniversary in 2016 with numerous innovations, among which the Wolfsburg Auto City attracted particular attention.

In the “True Spirit of Jägermeister Racing”, the Auto City presented the “Bugling of the Stag”. Dyed-in-the-wool motorsports fans call it “Stag Power 12”. Behind it lies a motorsports cult. Racing cars in Formula 1 and from the BMW and Porsche companies with the Jägermeister stag logo on the bonnet, among others, caused a furore on racing circuits worldwide in the wild nineteen-seventies and -eighties. These racers, sponsored by the Wolfenbüttel liqueur producer, were omnipresent at that time.

The racers in Dyck were driven by Le Mans winners including Hans-Joachim Stuck and Derek Bell. But rally icon Walter Röhrl also grabbed the steering wheel of a Porsche 935/RSR in Jägermeister livery. This racing car is based on a 1974 Porsche Carrera RSR. In 1974 and 1975, these Porsche models were regarded as Gran Turismo (GT) cars. With the introduction of a new category, the so-called Group 5, numerous GT models underwent further rebuilding. Although Group 5 demanded a production car as the basis, only the outline and a few key technical data were firmly specified, and in other respects the “silhouette cars” harboured purest racing car engineering. The most famous car of this epoch was the turbocharged Porsche 935 Turbo – based on the 911 – which in its top-of-the-range version (e.g. as the Kremer-K3) mobilised over 700 horsepower.

Successful in hill-climbing

Some Group 5 racers – like the Jägermeister car – were visually approximated to the 935. By a 935 front end and the 935 rear wing. But the RSR retained its naturally aspirated engine …

Read more in Issue 11/2016 of the “Gute Fahrt” magazine.