Just saw this on Mulsanne's Corner. The only private owned Sauber C9, Chassis C9-05, is up for sale! Asking price: 2,500,000 Euros.
It's John-Louis Schlesser's 1989 Championship winning car, so it has a hell of history to its credit - it came fifth at Le Mans 1989 and won at Jarama, Nuburgring, Donington, Mexico and Suzuka.

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/8664/mercedessauberc905startiq1.gif

Links:

Mulsannes Corner News (http://www.mulsannescorner.com/news.html)

Gurneyflap: Focus on the Sauber Mercedes C9 (http://www.gurneyflap.com/mercedessauberc9.html)

Mercedes Sauber C9: Special website created for the car (http://www.mercedes-sauber-c9.com/)

Remember, this is possibly the third greatest racing car of all time, so no bullshit. Stay cool.

That's a beautiful car, I love the shape of it, and especially the rear wing, that's glorious.

Don't get me wrong, 2,500,000 Euros is a lot of money but doesn't it seem a little cheap for a car of that calibre.

But if I did have the money, that car would be sitting in my driveway quite soon.

This is the 407kmph car!!! This is the 407kmph car!!!! This is the 407kmph car!!! This is the 407kmph car!!!

That's a beautiful car, I love the shape of it, and especially the rear wing, that's glorious.

Don't get me wrong, 2,500,000 Euros is a lot of money but doesn't it seem a little cheap for a car of that calibre.

But if I did have the money, that car would be sitting in my driveway quite soon.I don't think it's that cheap, actually. One of the Pescarolo C60's was up for sale a while ago, it was estimated at 6-900,000 Euro, But it didn't make it's reserve because the highest bid was 550.000 Euro.
Of course this Sauber has to cost more than a snotty Peskie, as it's a Le Mans prototype the way it was always meant to be, and has a greater heritage etc.

Seems like a bargin in a overpriced expensive sort of way.
If I had the money it would in a box headed to Switzerland so I could deport it to somewhere I could drive it. (I don't think there are any tracks here for something bigger than Go carts)

Some smack-head will buy it. Some rich rapper or something and crash it. A piece of heritage in the motorworld gone forever then.

^ I seriously hope not.

2,500,000 sounds like pretty good value considering what you get for the money.

Tom, was the C9 a group C car? In my opinion group C cars are some of the most imposing race cars ever made but I'd take a guess that the name indicates that it is a group c car, am I correct?

Some smack-head will buy it. Some rich rapper or something and crash it. A piece of heritage in the motorworld gone forever then.It's not road legal, and its not prepared for racing yet. I guess some true Group C/GTP Racing enthusiast will buy it, or maybe some museum.

^ I seriously hope not.

2,500,000 sounds like pretty good value considering what you get for the money.

Tom, was the C9 a group C car? In my opinion group C cars are some of the most imposing race cars ever made but I'd take a guess that the name indicates that it is a group c car, am I correct?Yeah, it's a Group C car. It was participating in the big C1 category where all the tough factory teams were running. Those were the times! Back then, you had freedom to design the car as extreme as you wanted, run as fast you wanted, they could smoke, be unsafe and have massive amounts of downforce - never before and never since [and never again] have Le Mans prototypes generated the level of downforce that the Group C cars did. I would give my right arm and left leg to make those kind of cars return to Le Mans. No, seriously, I would!

Very nice...I would love to take that to a track...

What would you have to do to make it road legal??

. (I don't think there are any tracks here for something bigger than Go carts)

same here , there are no tracks for something bigger than Go carts , so buying this car would be just to show it in a museum or something ...... anyway it would be a great opportunity to drive an "important" car like this one on a track , wonderful . from the looks of it and the history of it and the power of it , IMO this car can eat the asphalt if i drive it lol!

I wouldn't doubt that the owner may become Jay Leno.....or that one sultan that has 3,000 cars...I think it was the sultan of Brunei......:-k

Very nice...I would love to take that to a track...

What would you have to do to make it road legal??Huh, shít, that'd be next to impossible! The engine is going to be restricted badly, in order to comply with the noise and emmision rules. It will, among many other restrictions, need to have a separate converter for each cylinder bank, and one for each wastgate.
The ride height is going to be higher than the orginal suspension would ever be able to get, so it will need a new... wheel geometry, (or whatever that's called in English). It obviously can't use slicks, nor intermediates or full wet tires - it needs to be fitted with some random road tires that no way in hell would be able to transfer the massive engine power into traction.
I'm also doubting the splitter and the huge rear-wing would comply with the rules for road registration. So, when all the player hating bullshit is done, it won't be much wilder than the average Fiat Punto!

Some smack-head will buy it. Some rich rapper or something and crash it. A piece of heritage in the motorworld gone forever then.

I hope that doesn't happen.....

Dam, that's quite expensive. I'd like a museum to buy it.....

nice car, i bet it would be a good investment

Remember, this is possibly the third greatest racing car of all time, so no bullshit. Stay cool.
I couldn't totally agree with you .
It may be the greatest racing car of the decade .

You see , maybe 20 years later , when you become a father...you may say the R10 would be the greatest racing car of all time . Who knows it...but the C9 is a great car though .

damn neat car. 2.5 is a decent price considering schumi's 2001 or 2003 ferrari F1 car went for 2,400,000 euros.
i heard this car entered the series by manipulating some loop hole. is it true?

it may be no surprise if it did cause they have been a lot of cars that had done the same. This is the best car in my mind ever to have a Mercedez engine and i consider it in the top 5 of the greates race cars.....

I couldn't totally agree with you .
It may be the greatest racing car of the decade .

You see , maybe 20 years later , when you become a father...you may say the R10 would be the greatest racing car of all time . Who knows it...but the C9 is a great car though .I agree. But it's probably the third greatest sportscar prototype till now, next to the Audi R8 and the Porsche 956/962. One might argue if the Porsche 917 is better, but, in my opinion, it's very overated. Don't get me wrong, it's still one of my favourite cars, and it certainly was a very good car - just not as good as some people made it out to be.

damn neat car. 2.5 is a decent price considering schumi's 2001 or 2003 ferrari F1 car went for 2,400,000 euros.
i heard this car entered the series by manipulating some loop hole. is it true?I don't know about that. I know they entered a special qualifying car at Le Mans by manupulating a loop hole. But I agree with JoeProte, it wouldn't be a surprise if it did.

Didn't Michael Schumacher drive one of these at Le Mans? They're pretty awesome cars, full of nothing but torque. I'd love to hear it just start up.

They'll be a video somewhere.

Can you get one on GT4?

yea you can get one in GT4, but i think its a different one, it has different wings i geuss and stickers too...god i love that car, not sure if the car would be allowed to drive here..lol...but if i had the money and bought it, soon will be inside my museum of cars...well most of them is my dads, well actually all of them...god i would like to hear the sound of that beast!

Didn't Michael Schumacher drive one of these at Le Mans? They're pretty awesome cars, full of nothing but torque. I'd love to hear it just start up. Yeah it was the new version of the C9, the C11. Young Schumacher set the fastest lap at Le Mans that year, and he finished fifth in the race. That's pretty impressive considering it took extreme driver skill to haul ass in a Group C car. But then the fear hit him.

i put a deposit on it about an hour ago:D..

damn that would be a nice car to own!! looks hot...

This is the 407kmph car!!! This is the 407kmph car!!!! This is the 407kmph car!!! This is the 407kmph car!!!
Yes your point is?

^ Its A 407 Km/h Car!!

Yes your point is?Juggernaut's just saying it's a natural Le Mans winner, baby.
The Mulsanne straight was a 3.5 miles long piece of straight road. It was such a big part of the overall lap time at Le Mans that the manufacturers did anything they could do to make their car go fast down the Mulsanne straight, as it would lower your lap time significantly. So the top speed was really important.

thats very impressive, 407km/h, can every Le Mans car do that??

thats very impressive, 407km/h, can every Le Mans car do that??No, they have placed two chicanes on the Mulsanne straight so the cars never manage to go faster than 330 km/h (205 mph). The Toyota TS020 hit 351 km/h (217 mph) though. I think that was because of great aerodynamics, slightly lower weight, and less downforce than today's Le Mans cars.

This WMP from 1988 was actually faster than the Sauber, I think.
http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/1987/Le_Mans-1987-05-17-052.jpg

yea i think it was because the mercedes or somecar flipped during the high speed, then flipped over to the grass..

2 chicanes on a big straight.

Is Le Mans the GT4 equivalent to Circuit De La Sarthe at all?

If it was for sale, and I had money, I would buy an R390 rather than this.

Well your crazy then.

its completely a good car, altough, i wont wanna buy his car, even if i had the money, i wont put it in good use, i rather someone with all the nessary stuff to get this then someone like me or u

imo i think jay leno should go in for it cause seeing his car list he will keep good care of this car.

I think Donington Park should replace the bluebird on the bridge with this.

2 chicanes on a big straight.

Is Le Mans the GT4 equivalent to Circuit De La Sarthe at all?Yeah, the Le Mans track is orginally called Circuit de La Sarthe. It's the same track as in real life. In GT4 There are two versions of the track - one with chicanes down Mulsanne and one without.

dam you Tom, because of you the C9 has taken over my life. Its in my avatar, my msn picture and my wallpaper.......... :D.

But on a serious note you have opened my eyes to older Le Mans cars which I can conclude are awesome, Thanks!

dam you Tom, because of you the C9 has taken over my life. Its in my avatar, my msn picture and my wallpaper.......... :D.

But on a serious note you have opened my eyes to older Le Mans cars which I can conclude are awesome, Thanks!That's great... Cool. Yeah, fantastic. My pleasure! Whoa, this is an experience I'll never forget.

Group C cars were fantastic, but the real badasses of 80's road racing were the IMSA GTP cars.
The Nissan R89C, R90CP and R29CP, had nothing over their GTP cousin, the GTP-ZX Turbo. If you like Group C cars you should definitely check those out too. I still like Group C cars better, but that's mainly because of the Mulsanne straight and the aerodynamic efficiency that was needed to tackle it.

By the way, where did you find a wallpaper-sized picture of the C9? I have a resolution of 1280x1024, and all the Group C pictures I find just don't fit as wallpaper.

what was the difference between imsa and le mans back in the 80s??

what was the difference between imsa and le mans back in the 80s??There wasn't much difference. They were directly related. Actually, the Porsche 962 was made because the 956 didn't comply with the GTP rules. The wheelbase of the 962 was extended because the footbox of a 956 is placed in front of the front axel, and that could get ugly on tracks like Daytona and Road America.
Some Group C cars were racing in the IMSA series - Nissan bought the Nissan R91CP across the ocean. It still holds the distance record at Daytona, but it was only one-off races, really.

In 1992, the ACO got high on patriotism..! They wanted "modern" Group C cars (A fking excuse to favour the Peugeots). They, in short, made turbocharged cars uncompetitve. That left the R92CP in the JSPC, and made short work of the Mazda rotary powered cars.
So while the ACO slowly killed the Group C cars in Europe, the ZX-Turbo TWR Jaguar XJR-14's and AAR Toyota Eagles could fight in the IMSA GTP series, unprevented by the ACO.
By 1993, the Group C cars were all gone, but the party kept going in US.
Some of the IMSA cars even ran at the Le Mans, even though they didn't exactly fit the regualtions.

I dunno, I just lean more towards the IMSA GTP's at some points for their ability to generate incredible downforce at all speeds, and their raw power. The cars were more interesting. There were GTP Corvettes, Chevy Intrepids, Ford Propes, Jagaur XJR-7/14's, Toyota Eagles, Spices, not to mention my favorites March 84G's and Nissans GTP's.
There will never be another GTP class. DTM almost matches it in excitement and race quality... but Le Mans portotypes barely matches them in performance!
But I love Group C cars for what they were, not what they weren't.

By the way, where did you find a wallpaper-sized picture of the C9? I have a resolution of 1280x1024, and all the Group C pictures I find just don't fit as wallpaper.

This one is at 2048x1536, not a specatcular shot but ok none the less.

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/6817/wallpaper8718zk8.jpg

This one is at 2048x1536, not a specatcular shot but ok none the less.

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/6817/wallpaper8718zk8.jpg (http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/6817/wallpaper8718zk8.jpg[/quote]Thanks)Ooo. Fits perfectly! Thanks.