Sad to report the news that Charly Lamm, long time boss at Shnitzer has passed away at just 63 years after a short illness.
Legendary Schnitzer boss Charly Lamm has died
2 hours ago
By TouringCarTimes
The legendary Schnitzer Motorsport boss Charly Lamm has died after a short period of illness at the age of 63.
The team issued the following statement today:
“On Thursday, 24th January 2019, Karl “Charly” Lamm was taken from us after a very short and grave illness at just 63 years of age. Everyone at Schnitzer Motorsport is shocked by this unexpected loss. Our thoughts are with Charly’s wife and sons.”
Lamm was recently confirmed to be stepping down from his role as head of their BMW touring car and GT campaigns, with Herbert Schnitzer Jr taking over the running of the team.
Charly Lamm joined the team in the 1970s as a team manager and was a major part in the success of the team over the past 40 years.
The team has mainly raced with BMW in touring cars, claiming the European Touring Car Cup titles in 1983, 1986 and 1988, the World Touring Car Championship title in 1987 and the DTM titles in 1989 and 2012.
Dieter Gass, the head of BMW’s chief competitor Audi Motorsport, stated the following:
“The news of Charly Lamm’s sudden and – for me – totally unexpected death has shocked us at Audi as well. The motorsport family has lost a charismatic personality and wonderful individual. The way in which Charly Lamm lived for motorsport was second to none. He was a true sportsman, more than fair competitor and always saw the big picture. Conversations with him were always very inspiring for me. For me, he was a role model. Our sympathy goes to his family and the entire Schnitzer team that Charly Lamm lived for.”
TouringCarTimes would like to extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to Charly’s family and friends.
I remember writing a bit about Charly after Farfus won in Macau.
That post has some of the iconic liveries that his cars had over the years.
Decided to repost it here:
Everso Biggyballies wrote: ↑5 years ago
So pleased to see Farfus win in an emotional and much deserved farewell thank you to Schnitzer boss and long time motorsport identity Charly Lamm, who is stepping down from the helm of Schnitzer after this weekend. Charly has been involved with Shnitzer, a family business founded by the Schnitzer brothers and their stepfather Karl Lamm back in the late 60's and have been tied to BMW ever since, generally running BMW Factory teams in Group A, DTM etc etc etc A double win at Macau taking with it the FIA GT World Cup is as good as it gets for any team, and Charly has been part of the furniture of Macau in various categories over the years.
Charly was on the podium shedding a few tears.
1973 CSL. I loved this car.
Many great cars and memories. So many more than just these few. Think of a successful BMW and chances are it was a Schnitzer.All of them successful worldwide with more race wins and championship titles than you could count.
Thank you Charly.
* I started life with nothing, and still have most of it left
“Good drivers have dead flies on the side windows!” (Walter Röhrl)
* I married Miss Right. Just didn't know her first name was Always
He transformed BMW's motorsport activities, I always remember when he turned around BMW's failure at Le Mans in 1998 to win in 1999 with a revised car and superb work from his crew.