Art.Nr. 23870
Klaus Ludwig's Number One
Standing before me is the 1:124 scale Ford Capri Turbo from the 1980 German Racing Championship.
This is the famous winning car driven by Klaus Ludwig, who secured the most victories in the 13 races held in 1980 but missed out on the title because he was disqualified in the first two races due to a rear spoiler that did not comply with the rules, resulting in the deduction of 25 championship points. Hans Heyer was crowned champion that year.
The Capri of the famous Zakspeed team—the racing team from Niederzissen in the Eifel region that has been active in motorsports since 1968—was powered by a 1.4-liter engine developed in-house by Zakspeed. The engine was a further development of the BDA powerplant designed by Cosworth for Ford, based on the 1.3-liter Kent engine. The Ford weighed 830 kilograms and produced 600 horsepower. Initially, the car still had the large rear wing; after it was banned, a large diffuser shaft was developed for the chassis to increase downforce, and a smaller rear wing was installed. The Capri was the first Group 5 Capri to feature a so-called ground-effect underbody modeled after the Formula 1 cars of the time: The Turbo Capri exhibits handling characteristics quite different from other race cars, especially in fast corners—the faster you drive, the more the car can do.
Incidentally, the original vehicle is now owned by the MK Mücke Motorsport team. The racing team, which competes in the DTM, the ADAC Masters, and FIA Formula 3, among other series, fields the car in classic car races, including the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix. Today, the car’s power output has been reduced to approximately 540 hp. Owner Stefan Mücke commented on this in an interview, saying: “By the way, we’re not pushing the cars to their limits at these events either; while the cars back then had over 600 horsepower, the engines often blew up. To avoid overworking the engine but still be able to compete at the front, around 540 horsepower is enough for us.” And various class victories show that the Mücke Motor Sport Team is on the right track.
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