It’s a major coup for BMW, not only because Tomczyk was one of Audi’s quickest drivers, but he brings with him the coveted No. 1.

“Our squad of drivers is gradually firming up,” said BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt. “With Martin Tomczyk we are proud to have gained an absolute top-notch driver for our DTM involvement. Despite being fairly young in the touring car context, he is one of the most experienced DTM drivers around: he’s consistently fast, of impeccable character and an out-and-out winner.

In 2011 he was the first driver ever to win the DTM championship in an older spec car. We will do everything we can to consolidate this success with him in the future. Our target is to become competitive as quickly as possible, and from that point of view we see Martin as an extremely important asset.”

After several years in karting, 1998 and 1999 saw Tomczyk compete in the BMW Formula ADAC junior racing series initiated by the ADAC and BMW. Following a year in Formula 3, he took the step up into the DTM, where he has been driving for Audi since the 2001 season. In 2007 and 2011 Tomczyk was voted ADAC Motor Sportsman of the Year.

The highlight of his career so far came this season, in which he celebrated three out of his total of seven DTM wins, made it onto the podium eight times, and became the first driver in DTM history to take the title in an older spec car.

From 6th to 8th December, Tomczyk will get behind the wheel of the BMW M3 DTM for the first time in Monteblanco, southern Spain.

With three BMW factory teams gearing up for the 2012 season, there are now just 2 seats available.

Whilst Mercedes has continued producing an SL model since those early years, the Sport Leicht acronym has become somewhat tarnished, with recent versions topping a whopping 2,000 kg on the scales.

Something had to be done to put the SL on a diet, either that or rename it. Which is precisely what Mercedes have done. The diet, not the naming convention.

Next month, Mercedes-Benz will present a completely redeveloped SL Roadster made for the first time almost entirely from aluminium. The full aluminium bodyshell of this newly developed vehicle weighs around 110 kg less than a comparable steel bodyshell and is claimed to reduce the SL’s overall weight by 140 kg compared to its predecessor.

The designers use an even lighter material, magnesium, for the rear panel whilst high-strength steel tubing is integrated into the A-pillars.

“The effect is rather as if a heavyweight-class passenger had got out of the car and taken his heavy flight luggage, too” says Dr Thomas Rudlaff, responsible for the aluminium bodyshell at Mercedes-Benz.

“The result is perceptible and measurable. Less weight means more dynamism and less consumption. In other words: the motoring enjoyment increases and the environmental burden sinks.”

In terms of rigidity, safety and comfort, the aluminium structure proves superior to the predecessor’s steel construction. This is achieved thanks, among other things, to its intelligent lightweight construction (Aargh, there’s that intelligent word again!) with components optimised for their specific task.

There’s more..

There are two further innovations that Mercedes would like us to take note of, Magic Vision Control and FrontBass system.

Magic Vision Control is a new high-efficiency windscreen wiper/washer system which channels water to the windscreen, just in front of the wiper blade lip and in the direction the wiper is moving. As a result, when spraying one no longer sees a water splash on the windscreen to disrupt one’s view ahead, and yet the windscreen is kept perfectly clean.

Likewise the innovate FrontBass system uses the free spaces in the aluminium structure in front of the footwell as resonance spaces for the bass loudspeakers. As a result the new SL features clear, crisp bass sounds that make are claimed to provide a concert hall ambience even with the top down.

Both features are standard on the new Mercedes-Benz SL and will be explained in painful detail when the model is revealed next month.

Gallery

There is no word (as yet) where Tomczyk will next appear, BMW are evaluating drivers for its 3-car entry in the 2012 DTM season and have so far confirmed just 3 of their 6 drivers (Augusto Farfus, Andy Priaulx and Bruno Spengler).

Tomczyk describes his decision as a difficult one that he made only after careful consideration. “I won the Championship for Audi after eleven years together. The entire Audi Sport team and in particular Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich have always been behind me throughout the many years we spent together,” explains Tomczyk.

“I’m delighted that I could repay the trust by winning the 2011 championship title together with team Phoenix. Despite this joint success, and after careful consideration, I have now decided to accept a new challenge. To conclude, I would once again like to thank everybody with whom I have worked together during my eleven years at Audi Sport and assure every single individual that these years were, in hindsight, something very special.”

Tomczyk started his DTM career in the 2001 season as 19-year-old in Team ABT Sportsline with the Abt-Audi TT-R and was, at that time, the youngest DTM driver in history. In 2003 he became Audi factory driver in the ‘S line Audi Junior Team.’ Since 2004 he has competed with the Audi A4 in the DTM, initially for Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline and for the first time in 2011 for Audi Sport Team Phoenix.

In his sixth DTM season in 2006 he finally recorded the first of his seven DTM race wins to date. By winning the championship title in 2011 at the wheel of a year-old car he achieved the greatest victory of his career up to now.

His country’s motor sport federation Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC) awarded the DTM champion the title of ‘Motor Sportsman of the Year’ ahead of his compatriot and F1 champion Sebastian Vettel. Tomczyk’s father, Hermann, is Sporting President of the ADAC.

“It goes without saying that we deeply regret that he decided, at this moment in time, to seek a new challenge after his most successful DTM season with Audi,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “I can, however, completely understand that after eleven special years of highs and lows with Audi he would like to try something new – after all by winning the DTM title at the wheel of an Audi A4 DTM he has achieved exactly the goal for which he was worked so hard for many years.

I’m personally delighted that Martin showed his many critics this year because I always believed in him. I can understand that to start he viewed the transfer to team Phoenix and a year-old car as demotion. But it gave, as I hoped, his career new impulses. I always enjoyed working together with Martin. He is a complete professional who I personally hold in high regard. I wish him all the best for the future.”

How Audi will line up in the DTM next year will be decided over the forthcoming weeks. In Mattias Ekström (Sweden) and Timo Scheider (Germany) the Ingolstadt brand has two DTM Champions under contract who have both won the championship twice for Audi. No less than eight of the nine Audi drivers mounted the DTM podium at least once in 2011. Audi currently plans to contest the DTM 2012 with a maximum of seven cars.

BMW will be represented in the DTM by three factory teams, BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW Team RBM and BMW Team RMG. Each team will enter two of BMW’s M3 DTM cars, shown for the first time in its BMW M Performance livery at last weekend’s season finale in Hockenheim.

Spengler made his debut in the DTM in 2005, and has made a solid impression on the series. The 28-year-old has been on the top step of the podium nine times in 74 starts. In addition, the French-Canadian has claimed 11 pole positions and set 12 fastest laps to date. Twice – in 2006 and 2007 – Spengler narrowly missed out on the DTM title, ending up second in the drivers’ classification on each occasion. In 2011 he finished third overall for Mercedes-Benz.

“In recent weeks we have not only been developing the BMW M3 DTM, but have also been working on the driver line-up for our return to the DTM,” says BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt.

“Outside our current line-up, Bruno Spengler was one of our top choices. Despite his youth he has a lot of DTM experience, which will greatly assist us during our development phase and on race weekends. For this reason, we did not hesitate when the opportunity to sign Bruno up arose. We have yet to decide which of our three teams he will drive for. That will be announced at a later stage.”

Spengler initially made his name in Formula Renault and Formula 3 before making his debut in the DTM in 2005. He scored his first points with a sixth place at the Lausitzring (DE) and went on to claim his first win at the Norisring (DE) a year later. He followed up that victory with his first pole position at the Nürburgring (DE). He has since developed into one of the top drivers in this series.

BMW works driver Dirk Werner completed two laps of the Hockenheim track in the “BMW M Performance Accessories M3 DTM”, with eight-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen joining him in the new 2012 Audi A5 DTM.

Audi’s Hans-Jürgen Abt spoke about his enthusiasm for the 2012 season, “I’m already looking forward to a new era in the DTM. Continuing with the new cars for Audi and meeting with BMW as another competitor is a huge challenge. For the team as well it’s a huge task. It has to sort itself anew with the new technology.

2012 Audi A5 DTM driven by Tom Kristensen

I know that I’ve got a tremendous squad. I look forward to us taking on the competition. That has always been our strength, particularly at the beginning of such a new era. We’ll let ourselves be surprised.”

BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt said: “This event was something very special for us. Since the early morning there have been clusters of people around our car, and it was simply breathtaking to be able to present our car in front of such a crowd.

The reactions to our car were all positive. Today gave us all a lot of extra motivation to present ourselves in top form in half a year’s time at the same venue.”

Fitted with a powerful new V8 engine generating approximately 480 bhp, the M3 DTM accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in a little over three seconds and has a theoretical top speed of nearly 190 mph.

BMW works driver Dirk Werner commented: “It was a great experience to be able to do today’s demonstration laps. Obviously I drove the BMW M3 DTM at the recent tests – but a stage like this really is something special. You could feel the spine tingling atmosphere even in the car.”

2012 BMW M3 DTM which was driven by Dirk Werner at Hockenheim today

The new “BMW M Performance Accessories” livery of the BMW M3 DTM had been presented to a few members of the public at the BMW Autohaus Krauth in Heidelberg (DE) on Friday.

Around three months earlier, on July 15th, the BMW M3 DTM concept car was officially presented at the BMW Welt in Munich (DE). From 2012 on, BMW will compete in the DTM with three strong teams, the BMW Team Schnitzer, the BMW Team RBM and the BMW Team RMG. The BMW works drivers Andy Priaulx (GB) and Augusto Farfus (BR) have already been confirmed as drivers for the 2012 season.

BMW Motorsport Director, Jens Marquardt, was at the unveiling of the M3 DTM and commented, “The car’s aerodynamics were developed in close collaboration with the engineers from series production. The BMW Group boasts impressive resources in this field and the wind tunnels are ultra-modern. This – and the Title Partner BMW M Performance Accessories – shows that the entire company is behind the 2012 DTM project and is working hard towards it.”

“Old-school DTM fans will recognise from the typical BMW M stripes that the appearance is based on the original BMW M3 cars from the ‘old DTM’. We are very proud of this design. It is both traditional and modern in equal measures. It shows our roots, but in a contemporary style,”

BMW’s have entered three DTM works teams for 2012 – BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW Team RBM and BMW Team RMG. Factory drivers Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx have already been confirmed for the series, with Jörg Müller and Dirk Werner likely to join them. Young drivers René Rast, Jean-Karl Vernay and Richie Stanaway joined testing at the EuroSpeedway in Lausitz recently, hoping to earn themselves a place on the squad.

BMW’s 2012 M3 DTM testing at EuroSpeedway Lausitz.

Mercedes and Audi will joining BMW this weekend, performing demonstration laps of the Hockenheimring with their new 2012 cars.

Gallery

The DTM finale takes place this coming weekend (October 23rd) at the Hockenheimring and with the regulations changing for 2012, Mercedes has chosen to remind us of their rich and illustrious history in the series, by sharing some images below.

Since 2000, when the DTM series was revived, Mercedes-Benz have won 18 out of the 25 races staged at Hockenheim, which is a win rate of over 70 percent. But Audi’s A4 DTM is none too shabby either – 43 pole positions, 31 fastest race laps, 34 victories and five champion’s titles since its debut in April 2004 at Hockenheim.

Spengler said, “The Hockenheimring is one of my favourite tracks, and the season opener in May went really well for us – it was the second win in my career at the circuit. I especially like the combination of fast corners and slow sections such as the hairpin. This course is technically very demanding and you need good brakes and impressive top speed. It’s a lot of fun racing here. As this is the last race for the DTM AMG Mercedes C-Class, we’re aiming to send our fans home happy with a victory and to win the team championship.”

Audi Sport driver Mattias Ekström spoke of his thoughts before the weekend, “It’s always nice to travel to Hockenheim. It will conclude the season. This time I’m arriving there completely relaxed and will try to deliver a solid performance. I want to clinch another good result before we can look forward to the winter break and the tests with the new A5 DTM.”

So, the gloves are off for what should be a stunning season finale, which will be made even more special by the first display of all 2012 championship contenders on track at the same time – the Audi A5 DTM, the BMW M3 DTM and the DTM AMG Mercedes C-Coupé will all take to the racetrack for some demonstration laps, providing fans with their first taste of what to expect in 2012.

Without further ado, I’ll let you absorb the latest images from Mercedes-Benz showcasing the history of the C-Class DTM.

Paul di Resta, 2010 DTM Champion.

Klaus Ludwig, Champion, 1994 DTM Champion.

MERCEDES GP PETRONAS Formula One car next to a THOMAS SABO AMG Mercedes C-Class at the DTM Festival in Munich, 2011.

Bernd Schneider, 2006 DTM Champion.

Bernd Schneider, 1995 DTM Champion.

2004 DTM pre-season test in Barcelona.

Gary Paffett, 2005 DTM Champion at Hockenheim.

Bernd Schneider 1995 & 2000 DTM Champion with the AMG Mercedes CLK and C-Class.

This week I’ll explore the subject a little further, using the latest Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Caption Competition as the case in point.

The competition is built around the team’s F1 world champions, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, and encourages participants to have fun writing captions for a gallery of behind-the-scenes photographs of the lads and their engineers at work. To provide some creative inspiration a series of viral videos have been produced, which you can take a look at below.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Cap Signing. Ever wonder what Jenson gets up to when he’s not racing?

Hosted on the Vodafone Racing Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/vodafoneracing, fans are invited to choose a photo then add a witty caption, after which they can vote on other captions from the 800 or so already added.

Some of my favourites include a picture of Lewis saying, “I left Massa this much room and he still hit me..”, or one where Jenson is looking at a magazine with his engineer and says ‘..at least I’m sexier than Vettel in the latest Pirelli photo shoot..”. You get the idea.

The App can prove quite an addictive experience, especially once you realise there are prizes on offer. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes merchandise (including caps and t-shirts signed by either Lewis or Jenson) will be given to the highest points scorer each week, but the grand prize is a meet and greet for the main winner (and a friend) to visit either Lewis or Jenson at the McLaren Technical Centre in Woking, tour the facilities and pick up a signed copy of their winning caption. The team will even lay on flights and accommodation if the winner lives outside the UK.

The campaign which has been running since late July, has earned Vodafone over 500,000 views on YouTube (300,000 of those in the past month) but perhaps more importantly has fed plenty of positive social conversation about the playful side of the team and its drivers.

Now you might be thinking it’s easy for Vodafone, with access to two F1 world champions and a marketing budget equivalent to the gross domestic product of a third-world country, but there are in fact several lessons that can be applied to every campaign.

Gamification

A few years ago we ran a campaign with Volkswagen & Tribal DDB, called GTI Project, a Scaletrix-themed driving game with its own microsite supported by a series of cryptic display ads. You can still play the game today (http://www.gtiproject.com/), but make sure you’ve got plenty of spare time available – it’s thoroughly addictive.

I remember measuring yield figures 60 times that of other campaigns and it went on to win several well-deserved awards.

The lesson learned was that a successful social campaign should focus on the viewer’s needs more so than the brand, and that play (just as it was for all of us at one time) is the best tool for learning.

An article published on Mashable earlier this year – Gamification: How Competition Is Reinventing Business, Marketing & Everyday Life – provides a more in-depth look at the mechanics of the approach, but in simple terms the use of gameplay for non-gaming applications plays on our intrinsic desire for reward and recognition amongst our peers.

From a behavioural standpoint it also lowers our guard, sustains participation over a much longer period and builds a shared experience, which as anyone involved in team building will know is crucial to the success of relationships in a group.

And of course groups of supporters and advocates are the goal of nearly every social campaign, so it makes sense for companies to start a campaign considering how they can facilitate the growth of these social groups using their brand as the catalyst. Gameplay is by far the best way to achieve this.

Content

Success in all of our relationships, hinges on the conversations we participate in and this is never more obvious than in the relationship between a brand and its customers online.

The problem as many brands have discovered, is without a constant flow of engaging content, audiences will swiftly move off topic, or worse, start talking about the brand negatively. Facebook pages become customer complaint forums and suddenly all those ‘fans’ turn from being an asset into a liability.

This is where content marketing comes into play. If gameplay is the mechanism, then content is the raw material which feeds it. Content won’t cover up a PR or customer service blunder, but it will provide the means to build a positive relationship with an audience and in many ways this is the main benefit of campaigns such as Vodafone’s Caption Competition.

It’s fun, it’s inclusive and brings us a little closer to the team which Vodafone are helping to sponsor.

There are plenty more examples in this sector which show how gamification can be used to great effect, including:

- MINI’s Getaway Stockholm challenge – where the City of Stockholm provided the backdrop for the world’s largest reality board game. [Link]

- Volkswagen’s The Fun Theory (The Speed Camera Lottery) – which tested the hypothesis, “Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do?” [Link]

- Ford Focus Rally – an interactive pan-American cross-country road rally with the grand prize of $100,000 and a brand new 2012 Ford Focus. [Link]

- Citroën DS4SEEKERS Competition – an online and mobile competition in a multi-player game of hide and seek for a chance to win a New Citroën DS4. [Link]

If you haven’t already scrolled past all the marketing speak, then take a look at the remaining viral clips featuring Lewis and Jenson overdubbed with the voice of an actor. They might just inspire you to create the perfect caption that wins you a visit to the most impressive F1 facility on the planet.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Hands Up

Just how hot does Jenson look in his new uniform?

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Coin

What does Jenson keep in his pockets when he’s driving?

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Jenson Excited

Ever wondered what goes through Jenson’s mind when he’s driving?

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes – Lewis Solo

Ever wondered what Lewis and Jenson chat about on the phone?

Disclosure: This article is sponsored in part by Vodafone, however all views expressed within are entirely our own. We’ve used it to illustrate our wider feature on digital marketing within automotive and motorsport. Sponsored articles are accepted at our own discretion and only where we believe such additional focus or analysis will benefit our readers. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this article further, then get in touch via email or using the contact tab on this page.

He’s a rising star, and one of Germany’s finest young drivers alongside that other well-known 24-year old, who’s likely to retain the Formula One crown this weekend in Suzuka.

BMW, realising the enormity of the challenge to compete against Mercedes and Audi in Germany’s DTM series next year, has chosen to test out some young talent alongside their seasoned factory drivers, Augusto Farfus, Andy Priaulx, Jörg Müller and Dirk Werner.

BMW Motorsport will continue its preparations for the 2012 DTM season with three more test days at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, following successful tests at the Lausitzring and Hungaroring during September.

Joining the test session at the EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, drivers René Rast, Jean-Karl Vernay (FR) and Richie Stanaway (NZ) will be aiming to earn themselves a place in one of BMW’s DTM works teams for 2012 – BMW Team Schnitzer, BMW Team RBM and BMW Team RMG.

“We are delighted to be able to offer a selection of talented, young drivers like René Rast, Jean-Karl Vernay and Richie Stanaway, the opportunity to test our BMW M3 DTM”, says BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt. “They have already proven their ability in various racing series and we are now looking forward to seeing them in our DTM car. At the same time, the focus at the Lausitzring test will once again be to gather important information and data on the BMW M3 DTM, as we continue to prepare for the 2012 season.”

All three works teams will each run two cars in the 2012 DTM series, however so far, BMW has only secured the services of Priaulx and Farfus for the coming season, so in theory there are still 4 seats up for grabs.

What’s this? ‘Mercedes-Benz Perfume. The first fragrance for men’. A quick sniff under your armpits confirms there’s a little too much ‘eau’ in your B.O. and you remember that you’re down to the last few squirts of 212 Sexy Men, so you whip out your credit card and head on over to Harry in Parts for a quick top-up of your lurvve potion..

Sound unlikely? Well Mercedes have just launched their first fragrance for men, which they inadvertently describe as a perfume, but will in fact be available as an eau de toilette, after shave, deodorant and shower and body gel.

The fragrance has been composed by renowned perfumer Olivier Cresp (Firmenich). Innovative and unique, it is the first men’s fragrance from Mercedes-Benz and combines woody notes with floral freshness. The cool top note features Calabrian bergamot, lemon essence and Italian mandarin. The middle note is a warm, spicy mix of bourbon pepper, nutmeg, violet and galbanum resin. The base note provides a spicy finish to the perfume and includes American cedar wood, vetyver grass and patchouli.

The bottle design is said to be masculine, modern and elegant.

We’ve requested a sample – so that you don’t have to – and we’ll let you know whether it’s worthy of the three-pointed star. Or not.