The 24 Hours Of Nurburgring

The Hankook Ferrari had 4 down legs in the front of the cage.  4 front legs seems to be an interesting trend in European cage design.  More than a few LMP cars had this.

Team Falken entered this Super Taikyu 350Z in touring car class.  It did quite well finishing 12th overall pretty impressive for a simple car.

The Falken 350Z had diff and tranny coolers in the rear with no diffuser.

The Falken Z was straightforward and simple.

Team Falken USA’s videographer Skylar Smith’s Mohawk went soft in the inclement weather.

The Falken Z had an off the shelf aero kit and wing which was pretty simple compared to all of the windtunnel tuned stuff we saw on many of the other cars.

The Falken Z was a car that seemed easy to build.  I think this started life as one of the Nismo limited racers that were sold several years ago.  The aero kit and cooler locations look familiar.  I am pretty sure this car is a Super Taikyu car from Japan.

This was the crowd on pre-grid right before the race, tens of thousands of people.  Note the packed stands.  What sort of racing in America other than NASCAR and the Indy 500 can attract so many people?  I was amazed that this was allowed.  The crowd would part for race cars and when the order to clear the grid came, people cleared out in minutes.  American fans would probably be getting run over by cars and ripping the cars apart.  Several lawsuits would result…

The race starts.  The Manthey #1 Porsche grabs the lead within the first few turns and builds it steadily.

There is a huge diversity of cars entered in the race.  Many privateers and club racers like this E36 M3 also take part in the race.  Someone with a stock several models past Audi A8 battled the entire distance.  They were slow but they finished.

A couple Vipers were entered in the LMP GT2 class.

The Hybrid ran strongly through most of the race.  It unfortunately retired with gearbox failure with only 2 hours remaining in the race.

Both Lexus LSA’s finished although they seemed to spend a lot of time in the pits.  They did not seem exceptionally fast.

Awesome VW TDI Touring Class car.

Privateer Porsche RS.  The speed and endurance of the basic Porsche GT-3 is very impressive.  The RS and RSR are literally very close to a production GT-3 that the factory has prepped for racing use.  Many teams simply buy their race cars from the factory.  Can you imagine buying a GTR from Nissan and being able to race it or having it last a 24 hour race here?  Thats speaking a lot for the maturity and constant evolution of the 911 chassis.

The LFA’s following each other around the track.  Frankly, I was disappointed that these cars didn’t seem very fast.

The thundering V8 made this M Coupe sound awesome.

Although eyes were on the exotic factory LMS GT cars, the majority of the entrants were privateers who put on an excellent show of their own.

Lots of traffic made for an exciting, close race.  The technical diversity of the cars make it an interesting geek show as well.

The Manthey car still easily cruising in the lead.  The #1 car is an older RS not the newer and tricker RSR.

This STI had a huge Japanese crew wearing STI garb.  I wonder if it had factory support?

The LMP GT Audi R8’s were my favorite cars to look at.

The naked chick 1 series hatchback looked strong as well.