The series launched in 1995 under the name Deutsche Tourenwagen Challenge (DTC), initially catering to Super Production cars. Ford and the Hotfiel Sport team were prominent early forces, and the championship built steadily through the late 1990s and into the 2000s as a proving ground for drivers and teams operating below the headline DTM level.
By 2004 the series had been rechristened the DMSB Produktionswagen Meisterschaft and had gained enough stature to appear on the support bill of European Touring Car Championship rounds. The 2005 season brought the formal adoption of Super 2000 regulations for the top class, designated Division 1, with Division 2 and Division 3 catering to less advanced machinery. This tiered structure allowed grids of 20 to 25 cars even when the supply of fully homologated Super 2000 machinery was limited, and it created a clear competitive ladder within a single event.
The Division 1 class also accepted BTCC-specification cars, which broadened participation. As the series matured it settled into three classes: Superproduction (1.6-litre turbocharged engines producing up to 300 bhp), Production 1 (1.6-litre turbo, up to 230 bhp), and Production 2 (2.0-litre turbo, up to 260 bhp).
Thomas Klenke took the championship title in 2002, one of the defining results of the series' middle era. The 2005 season produced a dominant campaign from Swiss driver Mathias Schläppi, competing in a MG ZS run by Maurer Motorsport. Schläppi won 12 of the 16 races that year, making him the undisputed champion and one of the most successful drivers in the series' history.
Maurer Motorsport continued as a leading team, switching from MG to Chevrolet machinery for 2006 and replacing Schläppi with former BTCC competitor Vincent Radermecker. Schläppi moved to the TFS-Yaco team running Toyota Corollas. Radermecker delivered Maurer their second consecutive title in 2006, while Schläppi finished as runner-up — a result that underlined how the championship's compact structure produced tight fights between a small core of professional outfits.
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Cup occupied an important niche in the German motorsport ecosystem as the senior touring car series outside of the well-funded DTM. It gave Super 2000 teams, which could not sustain WTCC programmes, a competitive domestic home, and it served as a development stage for drivers who went on to compete at higher levels in European touring car racing.
The series folded in 2017 after 22 seasons. While it never matched the profile of the DTM or WTCC, its long run demonstrated the viability of a multi-class Super 2000 format in a single national championship. For sim-racing purposes the Super 2000 regulations at its core are directly comparable to those modelled in several touring car simulations, making the DTC's results a reference for understanding how that class of car performed in real-world competition settings.
Gallery · 4 related images
