We love watching videos of some of the hottest sports and super cars do their thing on some of the best race tracks in the world, so when we came across a 20 minute long video of the Ariel Atom V8 and the Noble M600 in action at the most impressive race track, we had to jump on it.
Chris Harris was behind the wheel of two of the most amazing British supercars for his little trip around the Nurburgring. The two cars were borrowed from the factory, so it was even more challenging for Harris. No one wants a super car maker mad at them for wrecking borrowed cars, right? But in the end, Chris Harris described the experience as "scary as sh*t, but awesome!"
As a reminder, the Ariel Atom V8 is powered by a Hartley-built 3.0 liter V8 engine that produces 500 HP and 284 lb-ft at 7750 rpm. The Noble M600 is powered by a Volvo-sourced mid-mounted 4.4-liter V8 engine with a couple of turbochargers in it. For the M600, Noble is producing three power variants – a 450 horsepower, a 550 horsepower, and a range topping 650 horsepower with 654 lb/ft of torque.
A few weeks ago, Nissan announced that the standard GT-R Club Track Edition would race the famous 24 Hours of Nurburgring in May 2012. Now, we have the first spy shots of the car as it takes a few spins on the famous German track. Guess Nissan will be keeping their promise.
As you can see, the GT-R caught testing is slightly camouflaged, most likely hiding some larger air intakes. It also comes with a larger rear wing in order to provide an improved stability at high speeds.
Nissan official stated that the GT-R will compete in the race in order to collect much-needed data and information on how to help improve Godzilla’s overall mechanics in the coming years.
"Nissan will assess its endurance capability in the toughest environment (24 hour race) at the world’s toughest circuit (Nordschleife) against strong competitors-European sports/super car manufacturers’ factory racing cars," said Nissan in an official press release.
We’ll have to check out the 24h of Nurburgring on May 17th-20th, 2012 to see if the GT-R has what it takes.
Models like the Volkswagen Sirocco R and the Ford Focus RS are hits on the European market, so it’s not surprising to see them get put next to each other on the Nurburgring race track for a little competitive action. The two cars provided quite a show tooas you will see in this video which is about eight minutes long. Take a seat and enjoy!
As a reminder, the Volkswagen Scirocco R is powered by a four-cylinder 2.0 liter TSI engine that delivers 265 HP and 258 lbs-ft of torque. On the other side, the Ford Focus RS is powered by a 2.5 liter 20 V DOHC RS engine that delivers 300 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque. The Volkswagen can hit a top speed of 155 mph, while the Ford goes up to 163 mph.
We get pretty excited when we see a plethora of supercars in the same video, so when we saw models like the Mclaren MP4-12C, the Koenigsegg CCXR, and Agera R all put together, we just had to take a look. Then we found out that the star of the show was actually the Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0 - and there wasn’t just one but a bunch of examples of this awesome sports car.
The cars were caught by Youtube user jorrie2 during a Nurburgring testing session and next to very impressive driving shots, the video also reveals just how cool this car’s engine sounds.
As a reminder, the GT3 RS 4.0 is powered by a 4.0 liter engine producing an incredible 500 HP and 339 lb-ft of torque. This power is enough to sprint the car from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds.
BMW just keeps on dangling the M135i three-door hatchback carrot right out of the reach of U.S. buyers and this time, it just may start a complete revolt in U.S. BMW dealers. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, or BMW to all of you un-cool people, decided to whip the new M135i hatchback around the Nürburgring and some savvy little filmmaker caught it. To make things even better, this is actually a really good video with awesome sound – it seems almost like a professional deal.
The sound of this 300+ horsepower 3.0-liter TwinPower Turbo engine – “TwinPower” means one turbo with two scrolls, not two turbochargers – is music to our ears. It’s so nice that it may just take the place of all the songs on my MP3 player. Not only does this thing appear to scream when the driver puts the pedal to the proverbial “metal,” or posh carpeting in this case, but it also looks to handle like a dream.
The bad news in this whole situation is that BMW has still not decided to let U.S. buyers know if the M135i, let alone any three-door hatchback 1-series, will make its way across the pond and into showrooms at any time. There’s not even a European release date, as of yet, and we are already about to explode at the opportunity to get our grubby hands on them.
For now, all we have are the pictures from the Geneva Auto Show and the above video to keep our hopes alive. We are sure that if a large enough portion of US BMW customers start bombarding BMW with requests for this vehicle, the Bavarian car builder would eventually cave and bring this extremely hot hatch to the states.
Kick back, crank up the volume a tick, and enjoy the video of the M135i cruising the Nürburgring over and over and over again, just like we did.
The Toyota GT 86, the Scion FR-S, and the Subaru BRZ may all be intertwined, but ever since they were all introduced late last year, each of the Japanese sports coupes have branched out into different fields of motor racing.
The BRZ, for one, has joined the ranks of the Japan’s Super GT300 series, while the Scion FR-S will soon be making its debut in the 2012 Formula Drift season. As for the Toyota GT 86, it appears to be heading over to Germany to compete in one of the world’s toughest endurance races, the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.
Toyota, together with its racing amigos over at Gazoo Racing, recently announced that they were bringing a specially modified GT 86 coupe to the 24 Hours of Nurburgring. Full details behind the race-spec GT 86 have yet to be announced, but the Japanese automaker did divulge the list of drivers that will be driving the car in the day-long endurance race, including Masahiko Kageyama, Hisami Sato, Yoshinobu Katsumata, Hiroaki Ishiura, Kazuya Oshima, Takuto Iguchi, and Minoru Takaki.
In addition to the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, the GT 86 will also be entered in a number of other series races in Japan, particularly the Super Taikyu Endurance Series and the All-Japan Rally Championship.
Looks like the three sister sports cars are all set to begin their racing careers. Only time will tell which of these three will be most successful.
Nissan is headed to the 2012 24 Hours of Nurburgring endurance race and they’re bringing Godzilla along to join in on all the fun.
That’s right; the Japanese automaker will be fielding a Nissan GT-R Club Track Edition to compete in the 24 Hours of Nurburgring endurance race. According to Nissan, the standard production GT-R Club Track Edition is going to Nurburgring for a number of reasons, chief of which is their desire to collect much-needed data and information on how to help improve Godzilla’s overall mechanics in the coming years.
In a field of heavily modded vehicles, the idea that Nissan will bring a fresh GT-R with no performance enhancements to compete against those guys raises more than just one curious eyebrow from us. But hey, we’re not about to disagree with them on this matter. So in that vein, allow us to direct you to this video Nissan has prepared as they make preparations for the street-ready GT-R to race one of the most grueling endurance races in the world.
If you needed more proof as to how cool the new Koenigsegg Agera R is, here it is! During the recent Gran Turismo Events on the Nurburgring, the car was able to hit an impressive 401.6 km/h or 249 mph. According to the official statement: "when the awesome 1200 HP Koenigsegg Agera R passed the pit lane on Döttinger Höhe on Thursday everyone was amazed by the speed of the car."
And why shouldn’t they be; the Agera R used the whole 3.5 kilometer straight and hit an impressive 249 mph before braking at the bridge in Tiergarten.
The owner of the car, Bård Eker from Norway, said there were "no problems with stability under extreme speeds. The tarmac was a little bumpy while braking so It was quite exciting before the left turn."
Next to the Agera R, a total of 120 super cars attended the event, with the most popular being the Porsche GT3, the Ferrari 458, and the Lamborghini Gallardo.
Hit the jump for a video of the car in action on Gran Turismo Nurburgring.
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If there was ever a concern about how cool a car may be, all one would have to do is check it out as it takes its turn around the Nurburgring. As of late, the trips around the Nurburgring have included the BMW M5 and the new generation Porsche 911 Carrera, which both clocked in at under eight minutes. Now, it’s time for a larger model to throw down. The new Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 lapped the ’Ring in 8:49 at the hands of Sabine Schmitz.
This time isn’t too shabby, but it still doesn’t outrun the 8:24 lap time achieved by the BMW X6 M. Looks like the American SUV still has a few tweaks to be done to perform better than its German competition.
The new Grand Cherokee SRT8 was revealed at the 2011 New York Auto Show and Chrysler put extensive efforts into the model to make it a cut above the rest. It is powered by a 6.4-liter HEMI V-8 that delivers an estimated 465 HP and 465 lb.-ft. of torque and can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds. Top speed goes to 155 mph.
The new generation Porsche Boxster made its official debut last week at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, but the car has already scored impressive results. The Boxster S model lapped the Nurburgring race track in an impressive 7:58 - or about 18 seconds shy of the new, more powerful Porsche 911 which scored an heart-racing time of 7:40.
This speedy lap time means the Boxster S is faster than models like the Corvette C6 (7:59), the Viper SRT-10 (7:59), and the C63 AMG Coupe (8:01) - which are far more powerful than the tiny Boxster. This result also makes the new generation better than the model it replaces which had a lap time of 8:10.
The new Boxster S is powered by a 3.4 liter flat-six engine that delivers a total of 315 HP. It sprints from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.8 seconds and will hit a top speed of 173 mph when equipped with a manual gearbox.
