Tag: Nurburgring

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Motorsports Porsche

Hey this Hybrid thing might just work

Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid

Earlier this year when news broke about the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid there were a few sceptics around suggesting the car would be a triumph of marketing over substance. That may yet prove to be the case, but, for now, Porsche’s working Hybrid experiment is showing good early signs.

In a four hour endurance race at the Nürburgring on the weekend the GT3 R Hybrid finished third, behind the current Nürburgring 24 hour champions from Manthey Racing and an Audi R8 LMS. That’s some good company for a car like this to be keeping in its first season of racing.

The secret to the Hydbrid’s good showing was its ability to stay out on track longer. Most cars pitted three times during the race, the Hybrid just twice.

Works driver Joerg Bergmeister said, “The hybrid system clearly helped us to save fuel. Moreover, it’s a great feeling to have those extra 120 kW from the electric motors when you accelerate out of the corners.”

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Aston Martin

Rapide ready for Nurburgring 24 hour race

Aston Martin Rapide

Aston Martin’s new four-door saloon, the Rapide, will be racing at this year’s Nürburgring 24 hour race. As usual Aston’s CEO Dr Ulrich Bez will be at the wheel of the Rapide for the race, despite having the choice of the Vantage V12 as well.

The Rapide will hit the track as close to production trim as possible and Dr Bez explains this is a great test for his machines, “This race represents the ultimate final engineering durability test for any sports car – it subjects the car to the toughest possible assessment under public scrutiny.”

Aston has a pretty handy record at the 24 hour race, winning out the SP8 class for the last two years. Good luck to them adding a new car to their honour board in 2010.

Full press release available after the jump.

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Lexus Motorsports

Lexus LF-A returns for Nürburgring 24 hour race

Lexus LF-A

Lexus, in partnership with Gazoo Racing, will return to the Nürburgring 24 hour race this year (13–16 May) with production versions of the LF-A supercar.

The cars will be driven by a mix of Japanese and German drivers, including Toyota master test driver Hiromu Naruse, Takayuki Kinoshita, Akira Ida, Juichi Wakisaka, Armin Hahne, Jochen Krumbach and Andre Lotterer. The driving talent has a great mix of GT racing and proven experience at the N24.

Powered by a 552hp V10 the LF-A certainly isn’t lacking for performance. Indeed, in road-going trim Lexus claim their supercar can reach 100km/h in 3.7 seconds, and is able to exceed 200mph (320km/h+).

Last year Gazoo Racing entered two pre-production models in the 24 hour enduro. They’ll be hoping for better success in 2010 with encouraging, if not spectacular, results achieved in the 2009 race. Only one of the LF-As finished the event, placing fourth in class (from five finishers) and 14th overall, some 41 laps behind the winning Manthey Racing Porsche 911 RSR. The second LF-A managed to complete 106 laps and almost 22 and a half hours of competition before withdrawing from the event.

More after the break.

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Motorsports Video

Titan Movie – The beginning

Titan Movie teaser

Clash Production make some damn nice post-production videos of motorsport scenes. One such production is their Titan Movie project, which has been orbiting the blogosphere for a while now. So far, there’s been only been a couple of preview clips released, and a lot of the footage features racing from the Nürburgring.

However, until recently, most of the footage released had only featured action from the Grand Prix track at the Ring. Having a racing film showcasing the Nürburgring without having any action from the Nordschleife makes about as much sense as the Aston Martin Cygnet. It’d be little more than trading off the name for cynical and ulterior motives. It’s a good thing, then, that Clash have put things right with their latest teaser of Titan Movie which includes snippets of footage from the 2009 Nürburgring 24 hour race. There’s still not a lot from the Nordschleife, but we now have hope that there will be more to come.

You can see that, and the other clips after the jump. Enjoy!

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Audi Motorsports

Audi launches R8 LMS Race Experience

Audi R8 LMS

Audi have recently announced they will be offering cashed up wannabe racing drivers a seat in an R8 LMS. Two GT3 cars will be prepared by the Joest Racing Team, the guys responsible for six of Audi’s recent Le Mans victories.

Joest will be entering up to six VLN races at the Nürburgring this year, among other activities, and if you have the cash for this “Race Experience” you could find yourself in the hot seat.

“For the first time, the Audi race experience offers customers the opportunity to participate in a race with a professional Audi ‘factory’ team without having to enter into a long-term commitment or to make a high financial investment,” explains Klaus Demel, who is in charge of the Audi driving experience. “I’m very happy that we’ve been able to win Audi Sport and Reinhold Joest’s team as a partners for this project.”

Joest kicks off their VLN season on 24 April, so you’d better start saving your pennies!

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Motorsports Subaru

Subaru STi set for Nürburgring challenge

Subaru STi to race at Nurburgring 24 hour race

Subaru is taking a factory team to the Nürburgring 24 hour race this year (21-24 May). They will be entering a single Impreza WRX STi and have stated they are chasing a class win (SP3T).

Check out AUSringers.com for more detail.

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Porsche

2009 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

2009 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

If you had the cash, a 911 GT3 RSR would have to be right up there as the track-day weapon of choice. Of course, the cost, at around AU$750K, is pretty high, so only captains of industry need apply. Anyway…

This new RSR has a fully revised 4.0 litre engine. It seems a bit odd seeing a 911 with an engine capacity that isn’t 3.x litres, but who am I to argue. I certainly wouldn’t be complaining about the 331kW on offer, although peak torque is not especially high at 430Nm (7250rpm). All the same, with a 9400rpm redline and an approximate weight of 1245kg (FIA-spec) you’ll be sure to progress rapidly enough.

Porsche says peak revs are down from the previous RSR and this has improved the torque curve which has, in turn, improved driveability. Great news if you need to pop down to the shops in your RSR to pick up a litre of milk.

Apart from the excessivly flared rear guards, the most striking feature of the latest RSR iteration are the louvres on the bonnet. Apart from aiding the RSR’s aerodynamic and cooling capabilities there is the added bonus of keeping your briefcase at optimum temperature. The car just looks the business, and I can only imagine the joy one would experience if you were to be let loose in one of these on an empty racetrack.

Porsche is getting into the spirit of Australia Day by giving the 911 GT3 RSR its world debut at Sebring International Raceway on Monday, 26 January, as part of the three-day American Le Mans Series Winter test.

Around 20 new RSRs are already on their way to some of Porsche’s dearest customers, although it looks like AUSmotive may have to wait some time yet for our order to be fulfilled. And tonight’s lotto numbers are…

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BMW Past master

Past master: BMW M1

If the M1 Homage has whet your appetite to learn more about the BMW M1, then I trust you will enjoy this clip from BMW-web.tv. The three minute clip gives a brief history of the car and you will also see iconic racer Hans-Joachim Stuck give his thoughts on the M1 Procar series.

Related reading
AUSringers – BMW M1 on the Nordschleife
autoblog – BMW M1 Procar race celebrates 30th Anniversary of the M1
USautoparts – BMW M1—the original M car

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BMW Motor Shows

BMW M1 Homage to show off in Melbourne

BMW M1 Homage

BMW’s stunning tribute to their 1970s supercar, the BMW M1, will make its Australian debut at the Melbourne International Motor Show in February. The BMW M1 Homage was revealed last year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original M1.

“We are delighted to be able to announce the BMW M1 Homage show car will be arriving in Australia for the Melbourne International Motor Show,” said BMW Group Australia Managing Director Guenther Seemann.

“The BMW M1 Homage is a sensational looking car that highlights both the strong dynamic Motorsport heritage of BMW, but also the talent and skill of our current designers, who created a 21st century look at how a new generation BMW M1 could look. There is no doubt the BMW M1 Homage will be a draw card for the visitors to the Melbourne show, joining with our new Twin Turbo V8-powered BMW 7 Series and X6 Sports Activity Coupé,” he said.

In 1979 the M1, powered by a 3.5 litre inline six cylinder, was Germany’s fastest production sports car. The car was immortalised, in part, by Andy Warhol’s Art Car that terrorised race tracks in the single make Procar series, which has F1 drivers Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda among its alumni.

More pictures, including the M1 racers at Hockenheim at the Nürburgring, along with extensive press material are available after the jump.

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Porsche Volkswagen

Porsche accuses Nissan of cheating at the Nürburgring

Nissan GT-R laps Nurburgring in 7 minutes 29 seconds

A few days ago a Porsche official made the extraordinary public claim that Nissan cheated when setting the GT-R’s amazing lap of 7 minute 29 seconds around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. And now Nissan is fighting back defending its honour. Read the story in full at AUSringers.com.

Or you can watch the lap below and decide for yourself…

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Audi

Audi R8 Spider seen unmasked at Nürburgring

Audi R8 Targa

NextAutos is reporting sightings of an Audi R8 Spider on roads near Germany’s famed Nürburgring. The Spider—although naming has not been confirmed—is believed to be available with the existing 4.2 litre V8 engine as well as the 5.0 litre V10, as the large tailpipes on these shots would indicate. The familiar side blades of the R8 hard top have been removed in the conversion to the soft top roof, but this certainly hasn’t lessened the eye candy appeal of the stunning R8. Expect to see an official release from Audi at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2009. Make sure you follow the link below to the NextAutos article, which has more images for your visual pleasure!

Source: NextAutos via autoblog

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News Renault

Renaultsport Mégane R26.R

Renaultsport Megane R26.R

The Renault Mégane III is due for release later in the year, so before saying au revoir to the current Mégane II le chaps from Renaultsport have seen fit to strip out the R26 (sorry, the Renaultsport 230 F1 Team R26, to use its full title) and give it a good spanking around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. And my word, what a jolly good spanking they gave it. The 123kg weight saving, along with R spec rubber and the familiar engine, producing 168kW (230hp) and 310Nm torque, lapped the famed Nordschleife in a time of 8 minutes 17 seconds. That’s quick. Properly quick! The fastest lap by a production based front wheel drive car, in fact. You can see the lap in full on AUSringers.com as well as the company that lap allows the R26.R to keep. Très bien!

As you can see from the images below, you can have your R26.R in any colour, so long as it’s ugly. A bit harsh perhaps, but the Mégane’s styling has always been in the love or hate it category. Personally, and contradicting my last point, I’ve been on the fence in regards to the somewhat awkward lines of the French rocket. It could be argued that its angular and purposeful look suits the car’s drive me, and drive me bloody hard, attitude. That said, plastering garish stickers all over the car (including a Nürburgring 8:17 decal) and bright red wheels, along with a carbon fibre bonnet, could be described as akin to screaming out “No the Ssanyong Stavic is not the ugliest car in the world—I am!!!” Lucky then, that the R26.R is limited to just 450 examples, none of which will make it to Australia in any official capacity.

More images and Renault’s press release below…

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