THE IWC RACING TEAM HEADS INTO ITS SECOND SEASON
Schaffhausen, 5th April 2019 – IWC Racing Team is the name of IWC Schaffhausen’s motorsport team. Founded in 2018, the team takes its place on the grid at selected historical racing events. The team’s sports car of choice is the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ”Gullwing”. Following two appearances in 2018, the team is now gearing up for its third race at the 77th Goodwood Members’ Meeting this weekend.
IWC Schaffhausen has been actively involved in motorsport for many years. Since 2004, the Swiss luxury watch brand has been a partner of Mercedes-AMG, the high-performance arm of Mercedes-Benz. In 2013, it became the Official Engineering Partner of Mercedes- AMG Petronas Motorsport. In 2015, the Swiss luxury watch manufacturer became “Official Timing Partner” of the Goodwood Members’ Meeting. Since then it has supported selected classic car races at this event. In 2018, IWC took its commitment to the sport to a new level and founded a dedicated motorsport team. With this step, it became the first watch brand to compete at classic car events with its own racing team and car.
IWC officially launched the IWC Racing Team at the 76th Goodwood Members’ Meeting last year. The team’s sports car of choice is the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing”. This iconic sports car, with vertically opening doors reminiscent of the wings of a seagull, was manufactured by Daimler-Benz between 1954 and 1957. It dates back to the time when IWC’s watchmakers first developed the Ingenieur – a wristwatch featuring unparalleled protection against the effects of magnetic fields.
The team made its debut appearance at the Salvadori Cup at the 76th Goodwood Members’ Meeting. At the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ”Gullwing”, former Formula One™ star David Coulthard took ninth place. The second race of the season and the Swiss premiere of the IWC Racing Team followed at the 14th Arosa ClassicCar in September 2018. Former Formula One™ star Karl Wendlinger drove the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing” on the winding 7.3-kilometre hill-climb route from Langwies to Arosa, finishing in seventh place.
At the 77th Goodwood Members’ Meeting in England, the IWC Racing Team now lines up on the grid for its third race. Once again, David Coulthard will be at the helm of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL “Gullwing”. Coulthard will compete in the Tony Gaze Trophy for sports and GT cars of a type that raced before 1959.
IWC Schaffhausen is the Engineer of Watchmaking. In 1868, the American watchmaker and engineer Florentine Ariosto Jones established the ‘International Watch Company’ in Schaffhausen in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. By combining the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge industrial technology and processes, he laid the foundation for IWC’s unique engineering approach to watchmaking.
IWC’s distinctive and pure design is brought to life through collections ranging from elegant dress watches to sports and luxury sports watches, notably the Portugieser, Portofino, Pilot’s Watches and Ingenieur. Over its more than 150-year history, IWC has earned a reputation for creating professional instrument watches and functional complications, especially chronographs and calendars, which are ingenious, robust and easy to use.
A pioneer in the use of titanium and ceramic, IWC specializes in performance materials such as Ceratanium®. IWC’s advanced engineering division XPL develops technologies that enhance the durability of mechanical watches and extend their applications to environments with extreme conditions such as jet aviation and human spaceflight.
IWC is a leader in luxury watchmaking, crafting timepieces built to last for generations and continuously improving every aspect of how it manufactures, distributes and services its watches responsibly. Empowering the next generation of engineers, the brand also partners with organizations that work globally to support children and young people. IWC. EngineeredTM.