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Mercedes-Benz Tests New CART Engine

8 December 1997

MONTVALE, N.J. Mercedes-Benz's IC108E engine, the "clean sheet of
paper" V8 powerplant with which the three-pointed star will defend its
1997 CART Manufacturer's Championship, is ready to make its first
foray out onto a race track. After successful dynamometer testing, the
first car-ready IC108E was installed in the new Penske PC27 chassis in
England earlier this week and shipped to Fontana, Calif., where
teammates Al Unser Jr. and Andre Ribeiro will give the 1998 Marlboro
Penske Mercedes its initial run.


Al Unser, Jr.

"As you might expect with a brand new design which incorporates so
much new technology, we found some small things during early dyno
testing of the E' that we wanted to change right away, before
installing it in a car," said Paul Ray, vice president of Ilmor
Engineering, the race engine-building arm of Mercedes-Benz. "We've now
made those alterations, and the first Issue Two' IC108E was assembled
at Ilmor Engineering in Brixworth (England) on Sunday and Monday of
this week and run on the dyno on Tuesday. It was then shipped to
Penske Cars in Poole (England) for installation in the car and flown
to Fontana on Thursday for testing this weekend."

The first all-new Mercedes-Benz CART engine since the 500I which
dominated the 1994 Indianapolis 500, the IC108E is smaller and lighter
than its predecessor, the IC108D -- which powered drivers to nine PPG
Cup wins and six pole positions in 1997 -- and incorporates technology
from Mercedes' Formula One engine program.

Mercedes-Benz won 40 percent of the races it entered in 1997, and was
the only engine manufacturer to power race wins in both CART and
Formula One. In addition to nine wins during the 17-race PPG CART
World Series, Mercedes-Benz's CLK-GTR scored six victories during the
11-race FIA GT Championship season, with driver Bernd Schneider
claiming the driver's championship and Team AMG-Mercedes collecting
the team title. In Formula One, the Silver Arrows visited victory lane
three times in 17 races, continuing a history of success on the track
that dates back more than 100 years to the first auto race ever held.