The 1987 World Sportscar season had ended on a high note at the ultra-fast Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium: The Kouros C9 had earned its first ever pole!
For 1988 Peter Sauber was planning to make an even greater impression on the Sportscar competition. The Swiss team continued to develop the C9 and justified the vast effort by claiming pole for almost every race on the 1988 calendar, missing out only at Le Mans and in Japan. Most rewarding, however, was seeing Sauber C9 drivers atop the podium at the Jerez, Brünn, and Nürburgring rounds with three events left!
Formula 1 star Stefan Johansson was paired with the diminutive Mauro Baldi to share driving duties at three events. Together the pair had earned the dream result at the 1000km Spa-Francorchamps race: pole position, nearly a full second faster than the rival Jaguar XJR-9 of Lammers/Dumfries, and overall victory too! Relentless rain forced race organizers to call the race, bringing the contest to an end precisely 6 hours after the difficult race began, just 15km short of the planned race distance. It is this particular AEG Sauber-Mercedes C9, wearing Michelin rain tires, that Exoto has proudly reproduced and offers here in grand 1:18 scale!
The two beautiful AEG-sponsored C9s were shipped down to Sandown Park, Australia, for the final WSC race of 1988. There they enjoyed the perfect weekend by owning the front row of the grid and finishing 1-2. And so the stage was set for Sauber-Mercedes' Championship season!
