Iron Lynx Replaces No. 63 Chassis After FP1 Crash

Iron Lynx has carried out a chassis change on the No. 63 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo following Stephen Grove’s crash in Free Practice 1 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mercedes-AMG head of customer racing Stefan Wendl has confirmed.

Grove went off at Dunlop Curve during Wednesday’s opening track session ahead of the French endurance classic, inflicting damage to the front of the car he shares with son Brenton Grove and Mercedes-AMG factory driver Luca Stolz.

The car subsequently missed the remainder of Wednesday running, also not taking part in qualifying, before returning for Free Practice 2 on Thursday afternoon.

Wendl told Sportscar365 that Iron Lynx mechanics worked overnight after it was determined that damage inflicted to the car’s chassis could not be repaired on-site at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

“This was a short, heavy impact in the concrete wall, unfortunately,” said Wendl.

“Overall, the car was not so heavily damaged, but significant parts of the front beam of the aluminum chassis were so heavily damaged that we couldn’t repair it here without any tooling kit to align the repair again.

“So this brought us to the decision that we changed the chassis completely and this is what they’ve done overnight. The guys did a brilliant job and changed the chassis to the ELMS car and took everything apart that was left.

“Actually, as I said, just the front was damaged with the chassis front bumper and splitter and so on.

“But everything from the front end to the rear was available and everything we took to the next chassis and put it here ready for the next practice session.”

The switch marks the second consecutive time that Iron Lynx’s ELMS chassis will have been pressed into action during an FIA World Endurance Championship round, as the Groves also drove it at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps last month.

The chassis change comes as a something of a setback for Mercedes-AMG, as Wendl outlined that the three cars Iron Lynx originally had lined up for Le Mans were “one-offs, produced just for Le Mans.”

“We have to repair and we have to act now to keep the car racing,” Wendl said. “This is the highest priority.

“We are happy about the concept with those cars and the other two cars are still there in line.

“We hope that we finish the race as they are and they look beautiful wherever [they go] in a collection or in the museum sometimes.”

Of note, Wendl confirmed that three cars, which have been fitted with a livery commemorating Mercedes’ last overall Le Mans win in 1989, have been painted instead of wrapped to mark the occasion.

“They are painted in the original color from the Sauber C9s,” said Wendl.

“This makes them special and I think you can see it also, even on TV, that the paint color looks different to the film foil which is usually used.

“We went back to the roots and the Sauber guys, they used very thin, very light silver shadow paint.

“We took the same, we went into the museum, we went into our archives to look what was used, what the color and shape was and then we put it on the car.”