Exciting domestic racing series that attract strong factory backing have become a bit of a Teutonic tradition.

Today's equivalent of the DRM, which ran from 1972 to 1985, is the popular DTM or Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft. In common with the DRM, today's DTM features highly modified production cars rather than the more straightforward 'Super Touring' cars that populate the World Touring Car Champinships or most national touring car series such as the BTCC. The cars are not exactly prototypes or pure bred racing cars such as in today's LM-GTP racing but - aside from the car's silhouette profile above the wheel arches - any similarity to the production line model is superficial.

These types of high-tech German racing series also have a tradition of spiralling costs, hasty rule changes, rapid withdrawal of manufacturers who fail to build winning cars and, often or not, sudden collapse. This has happened in DTM once in the past decade and it also happened in the DRM.

Therefore, to explain the history of the DRM, we must break down the thirteen years of its existence into three periods.

In 1972, touring car racing hit Germany in a big way. A new series, the DRM, was organised under the auspices of ADAC (the German equivalent of the RAC) for Group 2 'Touring Cars' as well as Group 4 'Grand Touring Cars'. In contrast to the previous German national series (the Rundstreckenmeisterschaft) there were only two classes: Division 1 for 2000-5000 cc, division 2 for under 2000 cc. Each division had a separate race but the championship had only a single overall point classification.

The "Group 2" and "Group 4" classifications were the prevailing FIA regulations covering racing cars. This was the era of the Porsche 934, the MKI 'Cologne' Capri, the BMW 3.0 CSL (all Gr.4) plus the BMW 2002 and Zakspeed-built Ford Escort (Gr.2).

The DRM changed quite significantly when Group 5 silhouette cars were finally admitted in 1977.

The FIAs "Group 5" and "Group 6" regulations were introduced in 1976 and quickly gained favour in international motor racing - particularly the World Championship For Makes (i.e. the world sportscar championship of it's day). Gr.5 was classified as 'Special Production Cars' and Gr.6 as 'Prototype (or two-seater) Cars'

Group 5 regulations dictated cars had to retain only a vague similarity to the production machines upon which they were based. The move to Gr.5 in the DRM was resisted by ADAC until 1977. From this period until the end of 1981, DRM rules were based around Group 5 with the same two division structure (up to 2 litres/over 2 litres) as before. This was the era of the Porsche 935 in division 1 and the likes of the Zakspeed Capri and BMW 320 in division 2.

The formula was initially very successful and the DRM was often better supported by manufacturers than the WCM. Later, as Porsche and Ford came to dominate the two categories, interest fell away and the field began to dwindle somewhat.

In 1981 only Kremer, GS Tuning and Zakspeed had managed to contest every race. The cost of running highly modified production cars competitively at this level was rising dramatically and ADAC saw the only solution in converting the championship to a 'Group C' series from 1982 onwards. 'Group C' was the emerging prototype category that many of the big manufacturers were preparing for by building factory-built off-the-shelf cars which they would sell to private teams.

The conversion was to be staged and for 1982, the DRM was ran as a single division championship for Group 5, Group 6 and Group C cars which helped to swell the number of competitors. This continued in 1983 when Gr.5 machinery was still allowed to compete as 'field-fillers' for one last year.

From 1984 onwards, the DRM became Group C only. This was the era of the Ford C-100 and Lancia LC-10. An attempt was made to 'internationalise' the series by running as the International Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (IDRM) and selecting some of the World Endurance Championship races as a IDRM point races. By its final two years of 1984 and 1985, the DRM was essentially a sports car series. It was replaced by the 'Supercup' championship which ended in 1989.

The true heir of the DRM is today's DTM series which began in 1984. Like the DRM, the current series has had its ups and downs - for instance, it collapsed in 1996 - but is now going strong with full factory support from Mercedes, Audi and Opel. Cost retrictions which keep the series healthy mean that the cars are not as highly modified as the Group 5 monsters but they are more than just mere 'tin-tops'.

ABOVE: A typical DTM car, the Audi A4