Volkswagen’s stunning purpose built race Scirocco was put through it’s paces around the Nürbirgring Nordschleife yesterday. The testing was undertaken by factory driver Dieter Depping and judging by his boss’ comments it went rather well. “The new Scirocco was in its element from its very first lap around the Nordschleife. The car also ran perfectly on this unique and difficult track,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. “Our technicians have produced excellent work up to now. Now it’s a just a question of preparing the three Scirocco perfectly for the race. After all, the 24-hours is a merciless test for man and machine.”

The Race Scirocco is front-wheel drive and will use a 2 litre TFSI engine delivering over 300 hp, fitted with a direct-shift transmission (DSG) including shifting paddles in the steering wheel.

Leading the three car attack for Volkswagen will be Hans-Joachim Stuck and Carlos Sainz. They will be joined by junior drivers from various categories, along with Volkswagen board member for technical development Dr Ulrich Hackenberg as well as journalists Bernd Ostmann (auto motor und sport) and Matthias Malmedie (Grip – das Motormagazin).

The Nürburgring 24 hour race will be held over the weekend of 23-25 May. In preparation for the event Volkswagen will be running a pair of Golf GTI R-Line cars at this weekend’s VLN 4 hour endurance race.

(Thanks again to Lee for the heads up.)