ATS (Auto Technisches Spezialzubehör) is a German company that manufactures alloy wheels for road and racing cars.

ATS was founded in 1969 by Günter Schmid. The company specialised in lightweight wheels for Porsche, VW and Mercedes-Benz automobiles. ATS manufactured the "Penta" wheel used by Mercedes tuning company AMG from 1979 into the 1980s. After sponsoring a string of national motorsport events, Schmidt decided to enter Grand Prix racing with his own team.

In 1977, ATS purchased the remaining PC4 chassis from Penske Racing after the American team retired from Formula One.

In the 1984 season BMW stopped supplying the team with its engines due to the lack of results and bad publicity team owner Günter Schmid had gained for his pit lane antics. As a result, Schmid closed the team at the end of the season.

Having established a new brand of wheels with Rial, Schmid would return to Formula One in 1988 with the team of the same name.

 

Headquartered:  Bad Dürkheim, Germany, 1977-1984

d6

The ATS D6 was a Formula One racing car manufactured and raced by the Team ATS during the 1983 Formula One season. It was powered by the BMW M12/13 4-cylinder turbocharged engine but the team failed to score any points.

The D6 was designed by Gustav Brunner, who based the chassis around a carbon-fibre monocoque.

To replace the previous year's Cosworth DFV V8, team owner Günter Schmid arranged a supply of BMW M12/13 4-cylinder turbocharged engines. A total of three chassis were built during the year.

The D6 was trendsetting in the way that its chassis was shaped aerodynamically at the front end so that separate bodywork was no longer needed. In the years to follow this design philosophy became the standard in Formula One; McLaren was one of the last top teams to adopt it in 1992 on the MP4/7A.

After running two entries the previous season, for 1983 ATS reverted to a single entry driven by German Manfred Winkelhock. Winkelhock usually qualified well but the team suffered poor reliability.

Schmid, a notoriously autocratic and difficult team owner, made a number of management decisions which impacted on the team's results.

In a retrospective article, Jake Boxall-Legge of Autosport called the D6 one of the best Formula One cars to never score a point, alongside the BAR 01.

 

manfred winkelhock

1983

BMW M12/13, 1499 cc, straight 4, turbo, mid-engine, longitudinally mounted

long beach, us

1977-1984