Back in June we brought news of a new documentary about the Nürburgring 24 hour race. Specifically the film follows the BMW factory team. Titled 24hours. One team. One target. the movie is screening in selected overseas cinemas now. There’s also a BluRay DVD release coming on 1 November. Above is the film’s official movie trailer.
Word from the Green Hell says Dodge has sent a pair impressive Viper ACRs out on the Nordschleife with the sole intent of beating the recent 7:14 lap time set by the Lexus LFA. And, it is claimed, they have done just that with a best time of 7 minutes 12 seconds.
We’ll have to await video proof and firm details. For now, we’re relying on the word of Marv Spatz, Viper Club of America president.
As promised yesterday here is the footage from Lexus showing their LFA Nürburgring package lapping the Nordschleife in 7 minutes 14.64 seconds.
As is the way these days when a manufacturer sets a quick lap at the Ring a record of some sort is generally claimed. Lexus say their time is the “fastest ever recorded lap time for a road-registered series production car around Germany’s infamous Nürburgring circuit.”
Forget the semantics of claiming records for one moment and 7:14 is just plain fast. No other way to describe it, really. Lexus also say the LFA Nürburgring used to set the time was not modified in any way and even ran on the standard Bridgestone Potenza RE070 tyres it is delivered with.
The special edition model has improved downforce over the regular LFA and also has slightly more power; up from 412kW to 420kW. Just 50 will be made, leaving 450 standard LFAs in the total production run of 500 cars.
The time is no doubt a bitter sweet moment for the Lexus family after they lost respected test driver Hiromu Naruse at the wheel of an LFA Nürburgring development model in Germany last year. The 67-year-old was involved in a head on collision with a BMW test vehicle on a public road near the Nürburgring. Naruse was known as the “Godfather of the LFA”.
You can watch the full onboard video of the 7:14 lap after the break, as well as an official statement from Lexus.
A couple of days ago we heard the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition lapped the Nordschleife in 7 minutes 14 seconds. That’s pretty damn quick, of course, and places the LFA ahead of other supercars such as the Porsche 911 GT2 RS (7:18), Corvette ZR1 (7:19) and Nissan GT-R (7:24) on the unofficial lap chart.
The video above is not the ‘record’ lap, but driver Akira Ida still managed to post a very respectable time of around 7:35. Not bad when you consider there was a passenger on board as well.
Renault Sport F1 brings us this great little video showing half a dozen Formula One drivers fooling around on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Red Bull, Lotus and Renault all use the RS27 engine and Renault Sport figured it was a good enough excuse to get Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli, Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov to do some hot laps around the ‘Green Hell’.
Mostly they were driving Meganes and Clios, but at the end we get a small preview of Renault’s new DeZir and Twizy concepts. Looks like it was a fun day.
Thanks to Toyota Motorsport for this excellent photo of the Aussie flag at the Karussell. We first reported on our national emblem’s appearance at the Green Hell back in 2008.
Best guesses tell us the flag first appeared on the armco in 2006, or thereabouts, and it’s been claimed it was painted by local fans of Mal Rose Racing.
It’s great to see it’s still going strong. If you like the shot above, click on it to load a 2000px super image.
Toyota’s radically styled TMG EV P001 has smashed the lap record for an electric vehicle at the Nürburgring. This is just the third genuine attempt at an EV record around the demanding Nordschleife, following MINI and Peugeot, but Toyota’s lap time of 7 minutes 47.794 seconds is going to take some beating!
Jochen Krumbach was the man at the wheel of the TMG EV P001, which is based on a Radical chassis and modified by TMG for e-WOLF.
The open-top EV set its record on road-legal tyres (read semi-slicks). It has 800Nm of torque and a 260km/h top speed; enough to easily beat Toyota’s sub-8 minute target time.
According to TMG director business operations Rob Leupen, “There’s no doubt that electric motorsport can be every bit as thrilling as traditional racing.”
Why not judge for yourself by watching the full lap after the break.
UPDATE 2 September: New pics and press release from Toyota UK have been added below.
The chosen few were able to earn favour with Munich by placing an order for a new M5. In exchange BMW flew them to Germany for some one on one track time with the car, albeit not at the Ring, before sending them out on a Ring-Taxi ride they’re unlikely to forget any time soon.
The BMW M1 is a special machine. Sure, by today’s standards its performance is somewhat pedestrian, but back in the 1970s, when the M1 was first released, it was the real deal. BMW even set up a one-make ‘M1 Procar’ series.
The category supported Formula One races in Europe for the 1979 and 1980 seasons. Better than that, the first five F1 drivers from Friday practice were all given a factory-backed M1 Procar to race on Saturday. Those were the days!
Well, luckily for us those days have been given a revival of sorts thanks to this new onboard video of an M1 Procar being driven around the famed Nürburgring Nordschleife earlier this month. Klaus Graf is the man at the wheel, fresh from his recent win at the Road Atlanta ALMS race.
Apparently this was his first flying lap in the M1 Procar at the ‘Green Hell’ so posting a sub-8 minute lap time is not too shabby at all. Perhaps this should come as no surprise. After all, the very same car was driven by Nelson Piquet and Hans-Joachim Stuck to third place in the 1980 Nürburgring 1000km race. But, most all, we love the noise. Oh the noise!
A big thank you to frozenspeed for making the clip available (check it out below). There’s also a couple of bonus M1 videos for you to enjoy.
Good news for fans of the McLaren MP4-12C GT3 with confirmation the Dörr Motorsport team will be racing a pair of these cars in the VLN series next year. Of course, those shorter enduro races will be preparation for the main game, the 2012 Nürburgring 24 hour race. We’ll be watching very closely!
