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Zakspeed () is a motor racing team from Germany, founded in 1968 by Erich Zakowski and then run by his son Peter Zakowski. It is based in Niederzissen, Rhineland-Palatinate, around from the Nürburgring circuit.
The team was, together with the Rial Racing, one of the two last Germany Formula One teams based in Germany (with the Zakspeed's base in Niederzissen).
In the early 1980s, Zakspeed also prepared a Ford Mustang for Ford USA's Special Vehicle Operations to race in the domestic IMSA Camel GT series. The Mustang chassis was based on the Group 5 Capri.
The engine was the basis for their Formula One entry from to . Zakspeed became notable for building their own chassis and engine, something only Scuderia Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Renault did at that time. After a maiden season with Jonathan Palmer, the team hired the first Formula 3000 champion Christian Danner and ex-Tyrrell Racing driver Martin Brundle. The team's best result (and only points finish) was Brundle's 5th place in the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix.
For their final season, in 1989, Zakspeed switched to Yamaha engines as turbos were banned. The Japanese engine was unreliable and drivers Bernd Schneider (former German Formula 3 champion), Piercarlo Ghinzani and the rookie Aguri Suzuki struggled to pre-qualify the car. Schneider only qualified the car twice and retired both times, while Suzuki never got past pre-qualifying. Despite announcements in late November about an exclusive engine supply deal with Yamaha for the 1990 season, the team retired from the sport at the end of the year.
In 1987 while still doing Formula 1 Zakspeed also returned to their touring car roots with a works programme with BMW using the M3 in both the DTM and the European Championship the latter while the 2 main BMW works teams Schnitzer and Bigazzi focused on the World Championship while also running the revived BMW Junior Team in the DTM, in 1988 after the World Championship was cancelled Schnitzer and Bigazzi returned to being BMW's works teams in the European Championship in its final season with Zakspeed running the works DTM BMWs along with Linder, in 1989 in the DTM they and Linder were joined by Schnitzer after the European Championship was axed at the end of 1988 and in 1990 for Zakspeed's final season as a BMW works team Zakspeed focused on the DTM full time after quitting Formula 1 and Bigazzi joining the DTM full time after focusing on the Italian series in 1989 after which Zakspeed would switch to Mercedes for 1991.
In 1998, Zakspeed entered two Porsche 911 GT1 in the FIA GT Championship, where French Team Oreca dominated the GT2-class with their heavily modified Chrysler Viper GTS-Rs. One of these Vipers was purchased by Zakspeed to be entered on the Nürburgring VLN series to take advantage of the new, less restrictive rules for the 1999 season. Zakowski and his teammate dominated the 1999 season, winning every race, before the rules were altered for 2000 and the Porsche 996 GT3 showed up. The team won the 24 Hours Nürburgring again in 2001 and 2002. In 2003, against factory competition, they were disqualified due to a dispute over fuel tank size.
A company related to Zakspeed, Nitec, built the NASCAR-like V8-powered Space frame prototype cars of the V8Star Series Championship series which ran from 2001 to 2003. These identical cars used bodies modelled after road cars from Jaguar, BMW, Opel, Lexus and others. Zakspeed itself won in 2003 with Pedro Lamy in a Jaguar-bodied car.
In 2001, Zakspeed made a brief return to single-seaters with a foray into Champ Car racing in the US in partnership with the long-established Forsythe Championship Racing.
In 2006, Zakspeed returned to the FIA GT Championship with the Saleen S7-R. The team also runs a racing school operating at the Nürburgring circuit.
In 2009, Zakspeed managed Sporting CP (who won a race with Pedro Petiz) and R.S.C. Anderlecht.
==Gallery==
| Jonathan Palmer | Ret | DNS | 11 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||||
| Christian Danner | Ret | Ret | ||||||||||||||
| Jonathan Palmer | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | 13 | Ret | 8 | Ret | 9 | Ret | 10 | Ret | Ret | 12 | 10 | 9 |
| Ret | DNQ | Ret | 12 | DNS | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8 | Ret | Ret | DNS | Ret | |||
| Martin Brundle | Ret | 5 | Ret | 7 | Ret | Ret | NC | NC | Ret | DSQ | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | Ret | Ret |
| Christian Danner | 9 | 7 | Ret | EX | 8 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | 9 | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 7 |
| Bernd Schneider | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | DNQ | 12 | DNQ | 13 | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | Ret | DNQ |
| Piercarlo Ghinzani | DNQ | Ret | Ret | 15 | 14 | DNQ | EX | DNQ | 14 | DNQ | Ret | Ret | DNQ | DNQ | DNQ | Ret |
| Bernd Schneider | Ret | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | Ret | DNPQ |
| Aguri Suzuki | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ | DNPQ |
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