In 2011 the largest Porsche 911 race ever held took place as support to the Nürburgring 24 hour race. Craig Baird, a Kiwi we like to call Australian, was invited along as drivers from around the globe arrived in Nürburg to compete.

Now the official Porsche YouTube channel takes us behind the scenes speaking to racers from Great Britain, including well known motoring journo Chris Harris who raced for Porsche in the 2010 N24.

You can check out the clip after the break.

We first brought you news about a new Nürburgring documentary called Lure of the Ring back in July 2010. That was followed by a teaser video last March. Since then there’s been a Facebook page created and a preview screening of the film was held in January. Now we bring you a draft TV commercial for the flick.

If you’re not up to speed, Lure of the Ring focuses on the Australians who make the long and expensive trip to the Eifel to compete in the 2010 Nürburgring 24 hour race.

The driving force behind the film is Stuart Greaves from Adrenaline Video, a part-time motorsport competitor himself, so you’re safe in the knowledge this is a film about racers made by racers. Great stuff!

Drifting through a snowy Adenauer Forst in an open wheeler! Nice work if you can get it. That’s exactly what Andy Gülden from the Nürburgring Driving Academy has just done and you can see the video after the break.

Given the yesterday’s news about management changes at the Ring, Gülden might be looking for a new job. This footage should be a pretty handy addition to his CV you’d reckon.

After you’ve watched this go back into the AUSringers vault and enjoy watching a Porsche Carrera doing the same.

There have been some dramatic developments concerning the management of the Nürburgring in recent days that will literally give the Ring a new lease of life. This shapes as promising news for Save the Ring campaigners.

The contract to manage the state-owned Nürburgring and its facilities has been cancelled. This ends the controversial reign of the privately owned Nürburgring Automotive GmbH and the names Lindner and Richter can, hopefully, be consigned to the history books.

While the decision to terminate NAG’s management is welcome news, the immediate future is not totally clear. There’s the likelihood of court cases which could get messy. It’s unlikely Lindner and Richter will go quietly.

Taking a longer term view, however, the picture should be much brighter. A new management lease is expected to be sought and assuming the same mistakes are not repeated there is now new hope that the future of the Nürburgring will be assured for true ‘Ringers’ and not for shareholders.

Although, speaking to Jalopnik, Save the Ring spokesman Mike Frison makes a salient point, “The Nürburgring is public ownership and should be treated as such: operated for the public and motorsports. A new private operator would again look to fill his pockets.”

UPDATE: Pistonheads has a bit more background on this story.

At the Detroit Motor Show this year Honda announced it would be making an all-new NSX and provided a stunning concept car to prove it. In this video, which runs for 7 minutes 46 seconds (a tidy Nordschleife lap), Honda relives the glory days of the NSX, including ample period footage of the original model filmed at the Nürburgring. Towards the end of the clip we’re given an animated preview of the new NSX on the Ring as well.

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.

A recent report on German TV brings word that up to 140 jobs the Nürburgring leisure park will be cut, due to poor visitors numbers and ongoing financial losses. It’s a continuing tale of woe and, really, a time machine is probably the only way to undo this horrible mess.

Merry Christmas everyone.

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]