Nurburgring 24-hour race

Posted by Nick Trott at 5:50PM on Saturday 24 May, 2008 0 Comments

'Ring 'Roc Last night, I watched a ratty old Suzuki Swift bimble out of the pitlane during qualifying for the Nurburgring 24-hour race.

A Lamborghini Gallardo followed it out of the pitlane; all wings, slicks and glowing exhausts. As automotive double-takes go, this was one of the most acute.

Welcome to the nuttiest race in the world.

In just over three hours around 220 cars will embark on a motoring adventure like no other. Some are here to win (Porsche), some to have a laugh (the Manta team have strapped a fox's tail to the Opel's aerial) and others to test future products (Gumpert Apollo Hybrid, Lexus LF-A).

All are heroes; each team has to cope with around six cars per garage... oh, and the latest forecast for tomorrow morning is the bizarre combination of fog and thunderstorms.

Around the full Nordschliefe track (plus part of the modern GP track), fans have built their bizarre homes for the weekend. It's a shanty town of wooden structures, tarpaulins and beer cans. Suffice to say, none would pass a building inspection.

I've got exclusive access to the Aston Martin pit all weekend, so there'll be a AM flavour to my regular blogs over the race weekend.

You'll be pleased to hear that Astonâs DBRS9 shares the garage with the Lexus LF-A - so I'll have a good dig around this awesome supercar for you.

Fastest in qualifying was the Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 with a stunning 8:26.730 - 13 seconds faster than last year's pole time...