Niki Lauda drives his ‘old’ 3.0 CSL

To quote Monty Python, the actual Lauda car is no more, it has ceased to be, bereft of life, it rests in peace

I have sat and had dinner with Eckhard Schimpf, who was in charge of Jagermeisters Motorsport sponsorship for 30 years, I have also visited his amazing collection of Jagermeister historic cars, a lot of orange, but wow, what a collection and all cared for perfectly.

He does have a Jagermeister E9 in the collection, but he will be the first to tell you the original is no more.
 
I saw a photo taken by a friend of mine of an orange e9 GP2 car in a dusty old shed in Perth Australia. He was there to buy an ex Mass Capri from 1972 (le Mans Car) and tucked away in the corner was this orange beast. It was all there and completely original. This would be in the late 1980s, early 90's. I understand the owner got in a bit of financial difficulty and the cars were hidden. Long story short, it came up for sale eventually (maybe Govt auction, tax recovery etc??). I'm thinking two things, firstly this was a genuine Alpina Jägermeister car, and secondly this car ended up in the UK to be restored. Another small part of the puzzle. Is this the only genuine Jägermeister car from that time? Does someone know the history and where it is now, I'm just curious. I wish I still had the photo, I'll have a dig around for it.
 
Klassic said:
I saw a photo taken by a friend of mine of an orange e9 GP2 car in a dusty old shed in Perth Australia. He was there to buy an ex Mass Capri from 1972 (le Mans Car) and tucked away in the corner was this orange beast. It was all there and completely original. This would be in the late 1980s, early 90's. I understand the owner got in a bit of financial difficulty and the cars were hidden. Long story short, it came up for sale eventually (maybe Govt auction, tax recovery etc??). I'm thinking two things, firstly this was a genuine Alpina Jägermeister car, and secondly this car ended up in the UK to be restored. Another small part of the puzzle. Is this the only genuine Jägermeister car from that time? Does someone know the history and where it is now, I'm just curious. I wish I still had the photo, I'll have a dig around for it.
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Would love to see the picture you mention.

There was a Schnitzer car found in Peter Briggs collection in the Perth area about this time, that car was returned to the UK and was restored to its Schnitzer livery.

I have a dusty old picture of my Schnitzer in beautiful Jagermeister Gp5 livery about this time, although it was never an actual Jagermeister car and the Gp5 bodywork has been removed (which I still have by the way hanging on my wall). The car was beautiful and it was heartbreaking to remove the wonderful livery, but wrong is wrong and the car had to be returned to how it ran back in the day.
 
Yup, that would be the car, the one in the Briggs collection. Interesting it was Schnitzer car, I sort of remember it having Schnitzer type flares. Many years ago I heard about the car and tried to track it down in the hope I might be able to buy it. The trail took me up a wrong path, I was looking in Adelaide, I understood it was in hiding, so in the end it all got a bit hard. Then one day my friend Roger Townsend turned up at my workshop and showed me the photo he had taken, my eyes nearly jumped out of my head. It was the car! Roger had just bought the RS2600 Capri (Winner of the Le Mans 24 hr 1972 I understand). He took two photos, one of the bias tap for the brakes in the CSL as he thought the one that was missing from the Capri would likely be the same type. The other photo he took just because he like the look of the car, gave it to me, and I've lost it :(. When I enlightened him on what the BMW was, he kicked himself for not buying that as well. By the time I found this out, it was too late, the CSL had just been sold. Be great to see a photo of it in it's current state. https://talkmotorsport.co.nz/international/townshend-for-le-mans-classic/
 
Klassic said:
I saw a photo taken by a friend of mine of an orange e9 GP2 car in a dusty old shed in Perth Australia. He was there to buy an ex Mass Capri from 1972 (le Mans Car) and tucked away in the corner was this orange beast. It was all there and completely original. This would be in the late 1980s, early 90's. I understand the owner got in a bit of financial difficulty and the cars were hidden. Long story short, it came up for sale eventually (maybe Govt auction, tax recovery etc??). I'm thinking two things, firstly this was a genuine Alpina Jägermeister car, and secondly this car ended up in the UK to be restored. Another small part of the puzzle. Is this the only genuine Jägermeister car from that time? Does someone know the history and where it is now, I'm just curious. I wish I still had the photo, I'll have a dig around for it.
Click to expand...
I can clear up some of the mystery....it was originally a Schnitzer 2800CS Gp 2 car. It was sold to Walter Brun who took the car to Alpina for a full update to CSL specs....the car was fitted with Alpina engine, bodywork etc....and was painted white. It was sponsored by Jagermeister in 1974 so this was when it became orange. It was sold by the Oldtimer Garage in Geneva to the York Motor Museum in Perth around 1978, they intended to restore it and display it but the car just sat in their basement until we discovered it in 1993 and brought it to the UK. It was restored back to its Jagermeister colours., I sold it in 2005 since when it has changed owner again, and currently is used in anger often.
So, it is not an `original` Jagermeister car but became one.
I do wonder if the Museum thought they were buying the original Alpina car....regarding the car Lauda drove a few years back I am sure even after 40 years he noticed the difference......!!!
 
Some pics of the car........and the amusing part......The York Motor Museum wrote a letter to the CSL Club Magazine asking if anyone could help identifying the car they wrote a brief description in which they said the drivers name was Jager Meister !!
 

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Never met a Jager Meister, but I did meet a Chardonnay once , apparently named after her mothers favourite tipple....

Wonderful to get an update, and interesting to track its progress through life, thanks very much for that.
 
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