IN THE MOMENT: MERC POWER TO VICTORY AT THE N24

88 laps and 15 hours might not sound right for a 24-hour race, but combine the Nordschliefe and the horrific conditions we’ve had this weekend and it’s a miracle that many were completed… The #9 Black Falcon Mecedes-Benz SLS AMG crossed the line at 5pm to take the three-pointed star’s first win at the Nürburgring [...]

RAW & RELENTLESS: COOKING UP THE N24 RECIPE

Darkness fell at the Nürburgring – and so did the rain. Rain so hard that even this race – the toughest of the tough – had to be called to a temporary halt because of the absolutely appalling conditions. Driving on the Nordschleife in the dry is hard enough, but with a track better described [...]

IN THE MOMENT: REFLECTING ON RED AT THE N24

We’re eight hours into the ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hours and the rain is relentlessly lashing down. The race has been stopped for almost two hours now, neutralised under red flag conditions. The cars have been parked up in the pit-lane, whilst the crews go into hibernation awaiting announcement of a possible restart. The conditions [...]

ON MY COMMAND: UNLEASH ON GREEN HELL

This was the scene with just 10 minutes to go before the start of the 2013 Nürburgring 24 Hours, as the leading GT3s headed the huge field on their slow formation lap. Ahead of them, a hard day of racing around the most fearsome track in the world. Ominous spots of rain began to fall [...]

IN THE MOMENT: RIDING THE RING AT T-1

There’s less than one hour to go before the 2013 Nürburgring 24 Hours, and Speedhunters have just had the ride of a lifetime. We’ve been riding the Nordschleife in a Bilstein-liveried Vantage following no less than James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, as part of a 100 car parade around the Nordschleife to celebrate the centenary [...]

IN THE MOMENT: AUDI ON POLE AT THE NURBURGRING

Frank Stippler has put the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra on pole for the 2013 ADAC Zurich Nürburgring 24 Hours race. The running order for the Top 40 qualifying session was drawn by lottery after the combined field of 176 cars had completed six hours out on track. The cars were sent out at short intervals to make their two qualifying runs. Stippler crossed the line to post a lap time of 8m17.212s to blitz pole, while the second placed Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was over a second back in the hands of ex-F1 driver Pedro Lamy. The 24-hour-long race is due to begin at 5.00pm Sunday Nürburg time (Sunday 11.00am PST).

- Jonathan

DREAM WALKING: THE JOURNEY TO THE KARUSSELL

Two guys. Four boots. Four cameras. Four miles. No car. It’s a slightly different premise from the regular Dream Drive features that we have here on Speedhunters, but for the opening story of our coverage from the 2013 Nürburgring 24 Hours we decided that it deserved something different – and special. A trek out to [...]

DRIVE BY, SHOOTING IN BARCELONA

As the Formula 1 dust settles at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona after last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix I’ve been thinking back to a couple of weeks ago when I was at that very track. It was my first visit to the circuit, courtesy of the Spirit Of Montjuïc classic racing festival, and as [...]

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN: SENNA’S CARS AT DONINGTON

Ayrton Senna, Formula 1 and Donington Park: three things that go naturally together. Ayrton’s career was intertwined with this track, from his formative years racing in British F3 through his first Formula 1 tests and then on to that European Grand Prix. He even referred to it as his ‘best UK circuit’. Donington already had a [...]

THE GT-R VERSUS THE SKI SLOPE

I’m a big fan of going down ski slopes at unreasonable speeds, but not such a big fan of the slog to get back to the top again. So any way of reaching the summit in double quick time sounds good to me – especially if it involves the unfeasible idea of throwing a four-wheel drive, 600hp R35 GT-R up a freshly-bashed run.

Up? Yes. Uphill, like semi-vertically. Team IceRiders and Redhouse Media decided to find out if it would work, and added in some snowmobiles for an almost James-Bond-in-reverse thrash up the side of a mountain at Kåbdalis in northern Sweden. Ski lifts will seem so last year from now on…

THE WAY OF THE SAMURI: Z FEVER AT DONINGTON

This year’s Donington Historic Festival in the UK had the usual strong line-up of car clubs taking up the infield of the track, but one gathering I was really looking forward to checking out was the area dedicated to the Classic Z Register and the Z Club Of Great Britain. Organiser Jonathan Kinghorn had been [...]

POWER TO THE PEOPLE: THE BHP PERFORMANCE SHOW

So there we were: it was the first Monday of May, which in the UK means a public holiday. Hurrah! A month ago there was snow on the ground and many cars were tucked away in garages, safe from the ravages of an unusually long and severe winter that had rudely intruded into spring. But [...]

60 YEARS IN 6 CARS: A TASTE OF DONINGTON HISTORICS

The Donington Historic Festival signals the beginning of the busiest part of the classic racing season in the UK, and already the event is getting international recognition for the quality of the entry – not bad for a festival that’s just three years old. Even better, the reach of the cars taking part is being [...]

DONINGTON HISTORICS: PUTTING THE CLASS IN CLASSIC

Events like the Donington Historic Festival are like attending a year’s worth of the best racing events imaginable in one weekend, crossed with a time warp. That means the most exciting racing cars from across the last century, all in one place, all for you. One minute you can be watching priceless Ferrari and Aston [...]

THE PROCESS: WE CAN REBUILD HIM – THE CRASH TEST

The weekend had been going great for AMD Tuning. Just two hours previously their BTCC Golf had finished the morning race in first place. But in front of my eyes the front of this previously pristine racing car had just been reduced from a potential double winner to several large pieces after barely 100 yards [...]