FIA GT Diecast 1997-1998

1997

After a sucessful 1996, the FIA decided to put their name behind the B.P.R. series and call it the FIA GT. The Mclaren F1 was the jewel of the series, but the Porsche 911 GT1 and Mercedes CLK came along to take most of the victories.

There were entries representing Porsche, BMW, Lotus, Mercedes, Panoz, Marcos, and Morgan. Such an array of diverse and attractive cars had not been seen since the "golden" age of the 1960's. Unfortunately it has not been seen since...

FIA GT 1997
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
GT1 Class
Porsche Works Team
0	Porsche 911 GT1 'Mobil' Hans Stuck Thierry Boutsen	6 GT1	Minichamps Sports Racing	430 976606
BMW Motorsport Works Team
0	McLaren F1 Longtail 'Fina' J.J. Lehto Steve Soper	8 GT1	Minichamps BMW Dealer Ed.	80 42 9 422 191
0	McLaren F1 Longtail 'Fina' Peter Kox Roberto Ravaglia	9 GT1	Minichamps BMW Dealer Ed.	80 42 9 422 198
AMG Mercedes Works Team
0	Mercedes CLK-GTR 'Warsteiner' Alessandro Nannini Marcel Tiemann	10 GT1	Maisto	31504
0	Mercedes CLK-GTR 'D2 Privat' Bernd Schneider Alexander Wurz	11 GT1	Maisto	31504
0	Mercedes CLK-GTR 'CLK Sportswear' Klaus Ludwig Bernd Maylander	12 GT1	Maisto	31504
Privateer Teams
0	Lotus Elise GT1 'Thai' Jérome Policand Ratanakul Prutirat	15 GT1	Spark	S0183
0	Porsche 911 GT1 'Wilkinson Sword' Ralf Kelleners Pedro Chaves	16 GT1	Minichamps Sports Racing	430 976632
0	Lotus Elise GT1 'Benetton' Mimmo Schiattarella Luca Badoer	23 GT1	Spark	S0184
0	McLaren F1 Longtail 'Parabolica' Chris Goodwin Gary Ayles	27 GT1	Minichamps McLaren Collection	530 174327
0	Porsche 911 GT1 'G-Force' John Greasley Magnus Wallinder Geoff Lister	30 GT1	Minichamps Sports Racing	430 976630
GT2 Class
0	Dodge Viper GTS-R 'Cica'	52 GT2	Eagle's Race	3616

1998 - Yawn.

Mercedes won 10 of 10 races in 1998 (Including the season finale at Laguna Seca attended by the webmaster of this site). This domination, outrageous expenses, and the fact that the GT1 cars were no longer "road car based" led to the demise of the GT1 category. The FIA GT continues as a solid European series.

Most of the trouble began when homologation requirements were let loose

One missing name in all of this was Ferrari. In secrecy they built three F50 GT's and developed a very on-again off-again program. It was well into the 1998 season before they finally pulled the plug, and these car never raced in anger. According to http://www.barchetta.cc, three more F50 GT chassis were built, but had to be destroyed by a court order.(?)

Diecast

The Onyx 911 GT1 Porsches come with plastic bodies, but overall the quality is decent for the price. The green Zakspeed car a.k.a "The Cat in the Hat" displays very nicely. For some additional images, see Review from Nardster.

FIA GT 1998
Place	Car Sponsor	Car # Class	Model	Ref. #	Image
AMG Mercedes Works Team
	Mercedes CLK-GTR 'D2 Privat' Bernd Schneider Mark Webber	1 GT1	Maisto	?
	Mercedes CLK-GTR 'D2 Privat' Klaus Ludwig Ricardo Zonta	2 GT1	Maisto	?
	Mercedes CLK-LM 'D2 Privat' Klaus Ludwig Ricardo Zonta	2 GT1	Maisto	?
	Mercedes CLK-LM 'D2 Privat' Bernd Schneider Mark Webber	1 GT1	Maisto	?
	Panoz GTR 'Visteon' Eric Bernard Mark Webber	3 GT1	Auto Art	69851
Team Zakspeed
	Porsche 911 GT1 'Pirelli' Alexander Grau Andreas Scheld	5 GT1	Onyx Le Mans	XLM99011
	Porsche 911 GT1 'Jever' Michael Bartels Armin Hahne	6 GT1	Onyx Le Mans	XLM99010
Team Persson Motorsport
0	Mercedes CLK-GTR 'Original-Tiele' Jean-Marc Gounon Marcel Tiemann	12 GT1	Maisto	31504