Steve Sutcliffe from Autocar brings us news that Hans Stuck is unwell and recovering in hospital following surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain.

The clot is believed to have formed after Stuck crashed heavily while driving an Audi R8 GT3 during a VLN race at the Nurburgring in early July. At first Hans seemed all clear of any serious injury. However, in recent weeks he has been suffering from headaches, dizzy spells and nausea.

AUSringers wishes a quick and full recovery for Hans, who is one of the nicer guys around in motorsport.

[Source: Autocar & motorsport.com]

UPDATE 25 August: AUSringers has received an email from Hans Stuck reporting his recovery is well underway. His message read, “I am at home again and recovering well and fast. I am sure I will be soon on track again.”

When Porsche first launched the 918 Spyder in March they reckoned it could lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes 30 seconds. That’s pretty fast; quicker than a Carrera GT anyway.

The graphic above was captured from the Teamspeed forums, and if it is to be believed it makes a claim that the 918 has actually lapped the Ring in 7 minutes 20 seconds. That’s very fast! A Google translation of the sentence highlighted reads, “The 918 Spyder is a highly efficient super sports car with best-in-class performance (7:20 mins round time NBR) and best-in-class emissions (70g CO2 / km).”

According to the forum post the information was sourced directly from Ferdinand Piëch, grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who maintains links to the company through his position as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Volkswagen.

Interesting. We may have to wait a while for Porsche to confirm or deny these claims. Let’s hope its true and there is video evidence available soon!

[Source: Teamspeed]

If you had the keys to a Scirocco R and free access to the Nürburgring, could it get any better? Well, yes it could, as a matter of fact. Imagine having Ring legend Hans Joachim-Stuck as your own personal tour guide. That’s exactly what happened to Autocar journo Steve Sutcliffe recently.

Perhaps the only downside to this experience was the pouring rain. The positive for those of us playing at home, though, is we are left with a great piece of video with Hans talking us through the ideal wet line around the Nordschleife.

Unfortunately the clips can’t be embedded, so you’ll need to CLICK HERE to watch Hans drive the Ring and CLICK HERE to see how Steve Sutcliffe gets on when he had his turn in the dreadful conditions.

[Source: Autocar]

Pagani have just published a YouTube clip showing the Zonda R “record” lap of the Nürburgring. It’s a great lap to watch, too. The car is just so stable, there is no discernable body roll and the way the Zonda R gathers speed is mind blowing. But for a couple of missed gears, most notably on the climb out of Ex-Mühle, a 6:46 time may have been possible. Pagani’s text from the YouTube description field reads:

Assuring new technologies and materials are fit for production means also putting the vehicle’s components under severe stresses, exceeding those normally encountered in every day road driving.

The Nürburgring Nordschleife is the most demanding track in the world, for man and machine, an ordeal that each Pagani has to pass, only one of many in the entire development phase.

The Zonda R serves as the ultimate test bench, a car able to reach acceleration figures and speeds that are not possible with a road car.

This is further undermined by a laptime of 6:47,5 min for the 20,832 km Nordschleife.

So, the Zonda R has bettered the previous best time set by the Radical SR8LM; by less than a second. We’re now edging closer to the holy grail of Ring lap times—Stefan Bellof’s 1983 benchmark of 6 minutes 11 seconds. There’s still some way to go, I just wonder when it will be beaten. And by what!

Check out the full Zonda R lap below.

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A few days ago BMW celebrated the 25th anniversary of the mighty M3. They did so with a press release and a gallery of photos. Perhaps this video of a race -prepped E30 M3 lapping the Ring in under 7 minutes 40 seconds might have been a more fitting tribute.

[Thanks to Chris for the tip]

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Format67 bring us this remarkable short film. It features a Honda NSX moving through the streets of Frankfurt en route to its ultimate destination—the ultimate destination—the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

The credits at the end of the film say it was inspired by Ayrton Senna. Throughout the clip the following quotes from Senna are featured:

“The main thing is to be yourself. Many times its through a mistake that you learn. And the main thing is to make sure you learn through your mistakes and get better.

You should know, that, by being a racing driver you are at the risk all the time. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver. Because we are competing, we are competing to win. And the main motivation, to all of us, is to compete for victory. It’s not to come third, fourth, fifth or sixth. I race to win, as long as I feel it’s possible.

Designed to win. And as long as I can live by it. Some people agree, some don’t. I can only do what speaks for my mind.”

It is brilliant. Check it out after the break.

[Source: Format67]

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Dates for the 39th running of the Nürburgring 24 hour race have just come through. The race will be held over the following weekend: 23–26 June 2011.

[Thanks to Obi for the tip]

Kiwi Wayne Moore is a long time supporter of AUSringers and, more importantly, a long time racer at the Ring. This year marked Wayne’s 17th consecutive appearance. Making the pilgrimage to the Eifel mountains each year from New Zealand takes desire, dedication and a love of repetition. Read on to find out why.

The Toaster
By Wayne Moore

Have you ever been to the same place many times, maybe year after year, and got into a bit of a pattern? It happens with beach houses and time shares. Sure, things change when the kids transition from playing on the swings to playing behind the hedge; but much of what we do is often repetitive. We barbeque fish with the same neighbours. Drink the same beer. Get up at the same time each day. Wash clothes on days ending in ‘y’.

I’ve had the privilege to drive in the 24 hour race at the legendary Nürburgring every year since 1994 and for sixteen of those years I’ve joined the same team. That’s a bit of a pattern. Sure the race has changed. The field has grown from 120 cars to wait lists above 250. The crowds have grown from 70,000 last century to 235,000 on race day 2009. Nürburgring has grown with the injection of hundreds of millions of euro to create new play grounds for fans. But the pattern remains the same.

On Monday of race week the transporter arrives with one or two early bird team members including team chief and driver Eberhard Rattunde. We visit the Welcome Centre in exchange for a huge bag of decals and entry passes. The truck joins hundreds of others in parc ferme for the night.

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The team that brought us Mal’s big green hell was back at the Nürburgring 24 hour race this year and after the jump you can watch a teaser of what we can expect from their next doco. As you would expect the film will feature most of the Aussies who took part in the 2010 race.

Footage was captured from five different teams, including the Rimmer Motorsport Subaru of evergreen Ring racer Mal Rose; who can be seen above it is his teammate Peter Venn shown above gesticulating to a slower car. Other drivers included are Martin Bailey, Keen Booker, Stephen Borness, Richard Gartner, Rob Rubis, Ric Shaw, Paul Stubber and Ray Stubber.

Interestingly, most of those drivers got their first taste of the Ring at the wheel of Mal Rose’s Mirage Cup cars, which last appeared at the Ring in 2008.

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News has come through from evo that the Zonda R has claimed a new Nürburgring Nordschleife lap “record”. A bit like the sub-7 minute time posted by the Ferrari 599XX, though, it’s hard to know where to pigeon hole the Zonda R as it’s not a road legal car. Maybe just stick it in the bleeding fast category then, because its reported time of 6 minutes 47 seconds is bloody quick.

Quicker than the Ferrari (6:58), of course, but also quicker than the Radical SR8LM (6:48). Marc Basseng, the man at the wheel of the Zonda R, reckons there is more time to be found, as well.

Video of the lap will be posted as soon as it becomes available.

[Source: evo | Pic: frozenspeed]