Drive is a new YouTube channel. In their own words: “Drive celebrates the culture of cars. On the road, to the races, to the factories, to the studios—to the places you can’t go.”
We get the feeling revheads are going to like what they produce. Kicking off his first contribution for the channel is Leo Parente with this behind the scenes look at the 2011 Nürburgring 24 hour race.
Enjoy.
The Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series is the latest high profile sports car to get the Sport Auto treatment. That means some serious track time at the Nürburgring where it posted a best time of 7 minutes 46 seconds.
Interestingly, the Benz was bettered by Sport Auto in a new 991 Porsche 911 Carrera S (7:44), but was marginally quicker than a BMW M3 GTS (7:48). What’s two seconds between friends!
[Source: BenzBoost]
Chris Harris brings our attention to this brief but very entertaining video of him driving a Jaguar XKRS in pursuit of an XJ220 on the Nordschleife.
At the wheel of the classic 1990s supercar is John Nielsen, the same man who 20 years earlier drove the XJ220 to a new production car record at the Ring. The time set was reported as being 7:47:37 and stood from 1992 until 2000.
Nielsen hasn’t been back to the Nürburgring since he set that record. It doesn’t look like he’s lost much of his touch!
Last month Nissan was at the Nürburgring finalising preparations for the launch of the 2012MY GT-R. Apparently this video was filmed at the same time and shows ‘Godzilla’ has reduced its Ring time to 7 minutes 21 seconds. Not quite down to Nissan’s 7:20 target time, but pretty handy nonetheless. Or is it?
It’s been reported that Nissan reckon they don’t know a thing about this video. So, is this video genuine, or some sort of hoax?
[Source: autoblog]
Ron Howard and his merry men have recently been spotted shooting scenes for the upcoming movie Rush. The latest motorsport story to hit the silver screen will focus on the epic Niki Lauda–James Hunt battle from the 1976 Formula One season.
Pistonspy has a great selection of images of the old skool Grand Prix cars circulating on the old course; follow the source link for more. Awesome!
[Source: Pistonspy]
A quick scan of the Nürburgring website shows updated pricing for 2012 Touristenfahrten days where you can drive around the Nürburgring Nordschleife have been announced. There’s a slight increase compared to 2011 pricing for one, four and 25 lap tickets. The Jahreskarte (yearly ticket) remains the same as last year.
Those paying attention will see the 15 lap ticket has been dropped. It follows the demise of the 8 lap ticket when 2011 prices were introduced. Hmm, using a 25 lap ticket in a single visit is almost impossible. Whereas a four lap ticket will be used quite easily.
So, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to conclude that there would be a demand for eight and 15 lap tickets. Best to extract as much money from Ring tourists as possible, it seems.
The new pricing starts on 12 November 2011.
2012 Touristenfahrten pricing
[Source: Destination Nürburgring & bridgetogantry.com]
Strap yourself in for some awesome on-board camera footage filmed at the final VLN race for 2011. The video is from the #33 BMW Alpina B6 GT3 and provides a great insight into the start of a big race at the Ring. After the break you can see the full opening lap, the sights and sounds are simply magnificent!
[Thanks to Thomas for the tip]
Living in Australia we have to live vicariously through those who experience the Nürburgring on a daily basis. One such experience has been captured by the Discovery Channel program Daily Planet. In last week’s episode they featured a story on Dale Lomas from BridgeToGantry.com.
Dale is originally from England but now lives and works in Nürburg. Lucky so and so. In his feature for Daily Planet Dale takes is handed the keys to a Caterham R300. Of course, the only natural response to that is to head out to the Nordschleife.
Click the source link below to see the story.
[Source: Discovery Channel]
Today is Derek Bell’s 70th birthday. Simply, he is a motorsport legend and an all round nice guy as well. To celebrate this milestone here’s a great clip of him taming the Nordschleife in a Porsche 956. For more on Bell’s birthday celebrations head on over to AUSmotive.
