Following a reasonably successful season with the Capri in Division 1, Klaus Ludwig raced again for the Zakspeed team in 1981 but switched permanently from the 1.7-ltr car to a 1.4-ltr Division 2 car. Ludwig's 1981 car is easily identifiable as the livery was altered by reversing the black with red/white scheme from 1980 to white with red/black.

Klaus Niedwiedz also remained with Zakspeed in Division 2 with the blue/black D & W car. They were joined by Jürgen Hamelmann in a Pentosin-sponsored green, yellow and black car.

With the current format, competing DRM teams were faced with rapidly spiralling costs to keep pace with the turbocharged cars. In fact, the number of cars on the grid was still in decline and, in truth, Zakspeed now faced little opposition. This is reflected in eleven Division 2 wins for Ludwig, who finally took the overall DRM title for the Zakspeed/Ford Capri.

Ex-Zakspeed Escort priavteer Jürgen Hamelmann in the colourful black and green Capri also enjoyed a good year. Despite fewer podium positions, he finished above Klaus Niedwiedz in the final championship table - thanks to a consistent performance over the entire season. Unfortunately this was the first and last year he raced in the Gr. 5 Capri.

Also in the same year, a Division 1 car was raced by the Liqui-Moly team for Manfred Winklehock. This beast was dubbed the 'Killer Capri' by the press and was 17kg lighter than Ludwig's 1980 Division 1 car. This took six Division 1 wins and gained Winklehock second in class and third overall in the DRM championship. There are pictures of the car with its stunning Liqui-Moly livery in the thumbnail grid below and on the main picture gallery page.

With the DRM series now in very bad shape, a new single division format was being planned for 1982.

The tenth and last year of the two division German Group 5 championship was not a glorious one. There were two major reasons for this. On the one hand there was the dominance of Klaus Ludwig at the wheel of a Goodyear-shod Zakspeed Capri, on the other a lack of opposition due to alarmingly increased costs.

Ludwig dominated the 13 round series in similar style to that which he dominated the '79 championship in a Kremer Porsche 935 K3. But in 1981 Zakspeed and Kremer were two of the only three teams to contest all 13 races (the other was GS Tuning).

The most notable victim of increasing costs was the Joest Team which built a superb replica Moby Dick Porsche 935 for the season but after only three races (including one triumph, at the Hockenheim Jim Clark Rennen meeting) had to send the car to the USA, leasing it and eventually selling it to Gianpiero Moretti.

The Bavarian Schnitzer team couldn't run all the races either, due to financial problems. The team lost its sponsorship mid-season, but nevertheless Hans Stuck notched up two victories in its mighty but troublesome 850 bhp BMW M1. Stuck won in the rain at the Salzburgring and in the heat at the Norisring but the 'Achilles Heel' of the powerful car was its gearbox, which often couldn't stand the immense torque.

In 1981 the Zakspeed Capri, introduced in 1978, finally took the title. Ludwig was never in any real danger, taking the under two litre pole for all 13 races, sometimes with a special short stroke engine which is believed to be the basis of a Formula One project. The German ace finished first 10 times, second once and retired twice with engine failure. His team mate Klaus Niedzwiedz suffered a mysteriuous series of mechanical failures but won the last two races, after Ludwig hit trouble

Strong opposition for Zakspeed was expected from the two flat blue Lancia Beta Montecarlos entered by GS Tuning and driven by reigning champion Hans Heyer and European Group Two Champion Sigi Muller Junior. But although Heyer was again the most reliable driver (finishing all 13 races in the top 10), he was nearly helpless in trying to catch the more powerful Capri. In addition he experienced a total disaster with underbody ground effect modifications, which did not work at all on the mid-engined Montecarlo and were discarded mid-season. Two wins were all that Heyer managed in 1981 and he finished a lowly fourth overall, one place ahead of Muller.

The runner-up and third positions in the overall table were filled by the leading drivers in the Over Two Litre category. They were two drivers with very different characters, Bob Wollek - nicknamed 'the old man' - and the ever-pushing Manfred Winklehock. At the end of the day only five points separated the duelling duo. The Frenchman from Strasbourg first drove a 1980 Kremer K3/80 and later switched to a new K4 but achieved only three victories. Winklehock took six victories in his Zakspeed Capri 1.7 but suffered more retirements - three to Wollek's one.

A big surprise was Helmut Henzler's outright win in a GS Tuning Group Four BMW M1 at Wunsdorf in torrential rain. Wollek and Winklehock retired and Henzler went on to beat the rest of (an admittedly rather motly) Group 5 entry.

Next year the championship will be run as one class and will admit Group C and Group Six cars in addition to Group Four and Five machinery. Will it be any better? The sceptics in Germany are predicting even weaker grids, fearing yet higher costs.

From AUTOMOBILE SPORT 81-82. Published by Iconplan.

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