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Showing posts with label Nurburgring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nurburgring. Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2012

Chevy wants to Make Sure you Know that the Camaro ZL1 was Honed on the Nürburgring


While we can understand General Motor's fixation with the Nürburgring, we're getting the slight impression that the Detroit automaker may be overdoing it when it comes to promoting its cars.

After a ton of Nürburgring-related films on the Cadillac ATS and following the official video of the 2012 Chevy Camaro ZL1 lapping the Nordschleife in 7 minutes and 41.27 seconds, GM has published the fifth installment of its ZL1 video series that gives us yet another insight on how its engineers developed the pony car on the German race track.

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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

SPIED: 2013 Land Rover Range Rover Spotted Testing, we get Our First Peek at the Interior


We have another round of spy shots of the all-new 2013 Land Rover Range Rover. While the exterior of the British firm's luxury SUV continues to wear plenty of camouflage, our scoopsters were able to snag the first photos of the Range Rover's interior.

If you pay close attention to the pictures, you'll notice several changes including the repositioned main air-vents that are mounted on the same level as the audio and navigation screen on the current model. Right below we find a massive screen for the infotainment system that takes plenty of real estate on the center stack.

The lower console is also new and seems to be positioned slightly higher than before.

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Cadillac ATS' Super Bowl Ad Tells Everyone who Doesn’t Believe it Can Beat the 3-Series to go to "Green Hell"


Unlike Cadillac's previous failed attempts, the all-new ATS sedan was designed from a clean sheet to compete squarely against the best Germany has to offer in the executive compact sedan segment, namely the BMW 3-Series sedan – and possibly, the rest of the Bavarian model's range later on.

And if there's one thing GM's premium brand has been touting about the ATS more than anything else since it began teasing the car last summer, it's the fact that it's handling and driving dynamics were honed at the Nürburgring race track in Germany, which as most of you already know, is nicknamed "The Green Hell".

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Infographic: The Nürburgring Race Track by the Numbers


The big daddy of all racing circuits, the famed Nürburgring in Germany, is a must for all auto enthusiasts. It comprises of two racetracks, the modern Grand Prix Circuit built in 1984, and much longer old Northern loop (Nordschleife) which was nicknamed The Green Hell by three-time F1 world champion, Jackie Stewart.

The racetrack is open to all including automakers that often test their cars as well as the public that can take a risky shot at fame.

The folks at CarBuzz in the UK put together an infographic that shows us many interesting facts and numbers about the notorious Nürburgring, and which you can check out in detail after the break.

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Friday, December 30, 2011

A Year's Worth of Nissan GT-Rs at the Nürburgring


If you live within the European Union or at least in a neighboring country like Russia or Turkey, and you happen to own a Nissan GT-R (or any sports car, for that matte), the best place to thrash your car is without doubt the world famous Nürburgring race track in Germany.

And given the price of the GT-R, it shouldn't surprise anyone that many owners were indeed able to afford the trip and live the magic of the Nordschleife.

For the rest of us, we'll have to do with a four-minute long video prepared by a YouTube user, which includes many of the Nissan GT-Rs that were spotted on the 'Ring throughout the year. Enjoy the video right after the break.

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One Helluva Catfight: EVO Pits New Jaguar XKR-S against 1992 XJ220 at the Nürburgring


In the 1980s supercar battle, Ferrari had the raw F40, Porsche the highly sophisticated 959 and Jaguar had, well, nothing. That is, until its chief engineer, Jim Randle, decided to begin work on an unsanctioned project on a mid-engine, all-wheel drive Jag supercar.

The XJ220 concept, named after its 220 mph (350 km/h) claimed top speed, was unveiled at the 1988 British Motor Show. It sported a 6.2-liter version of Jaguar’s classic V12 engine with a quad-cam system developed for testing in the Le Mans XJR-9 racer and, as Randle envisioned, all-wheel drive.

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Cadillac Engineers Try to Perfect the 2013 ATS on the Nordschleife [Video]


In the third chapter of Cadillac's video series on the new 2013 ATS, the Detroit firm's engineers explain to us why they chose the Nürburgring racetrack to complete the development of their soon-to-be revealed compact sports sedan.

"There's no other facility in the world like this. You can accomplish more in one lap around the 'Ring than you can running probably a dozen tracks in the U.S." says David Mikels, energy and powertrain integration engineer for the Cadillac ATS.

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Dodge Viper GTS-R Race Car Reverse-Engineered to be Street-Legal


Usually, you hear about street-legal sports cars converted into racers but this time we have the exact opposite.

After acquiring a Zakspeed Racing Dodge Viper GTS-R in 2010, the current owner of the 1998 model turned to Heurich Classics, a Germany company that specializes in the maintenance, repair and optimization of vintage and classic cars.

The owner had two very special requests for Heurich Classics: recreate the looks of the Hasseroder Viper GTS-R that won the 24 hours of Nürburgring endurance race in 1999 and at the same time, make it completely street legal.

The German firm started out by eliminating, replacing, adding or modifying certain components of the Viper GTS-R to allow it to achieve road-legal status in Europe.

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Cadillac Puts the Video Spotlight on the 2013 ATS Sedan’s Engineering Team


The video teasing of the upcoming 2013 Cadillac ATS compact sedan continues with the fourth installment of the series that focuses on the engineers behind the development of the car with which GM hopes to compete head on with the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

The rejuvenated wreath and crest brand stresses that all engineers working on the upcoming ATS were "handpicked based on their roles in developing other top Cadillacs" and "how well they can drive and evaluate cars on grueling test tracks".

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Nissan Says it has No Knowledge of Video Showing 2013MY GT-R Lapping the Nordschleife in 7:21"


The first Nissan GT-R R35 kicked off a war of lap times on the Nürburgring with its 7:29.03 run that seems to be escalating with each new sport car that is launched.

We already know that Nissan has made some serious changes to the 2013MY (2012 for the rest of the world) GT-R. Despite the fact that it looks identical to the previous model both inside and out, under the skin, the 2013MY is even better as Nissan’s engineers have apparently been burning the midnight oil for quite some time.

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Friday, November 11, 2011

We Already Know What You Did Last Summer: New Video of 2013 Cadillac ATS at the ‘Ring


For some reason, General Motors is hell bent to show us what it did with the pug-faced 2013 Cadillac ATS prototypes on the famous Autobahn and the Nürburgring racetrack in Germany this past summer.

After a general teaser and the first episode, Cadillac has now released the second part of its video series, which documents the team of drivers and engineers that put Cadillac's new BMW 3-Series saloon contender through its paces.

Hop over the jump to get a look of the new video.

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

GM Explains the Camaro ZL1's Special Aero Package [Video]


Ah, the Nurburgring; the Nordschleife; the Green Hell. Whatever you call it, it is today the de facto measure of any new sports car’s abilities, to the point where it has sparked some not so polite exchange of words between rival manufacturers.

The 580HP Camaro ZL1, which goes on sale in spring 2012, has of course tackled the famous track. Chevrolet didn’t expect it to outperform the top contenders, exotic supercars costing many times more than the Camaro. Nevertheless, it recorded a 7:41.27 lap time, reaching a top speed of 273 km/h (170 mph).

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Monday, November 7, 2011

Nissan Chief Engineer Says 2013MY GT-R has the Potential to Lap the Ring in Under 7:20" [+Videos]


During the media presentation of the tweaked 2013MY GT-R (to be sold as a 2012 model in markets outside North America) at the Sugo International Race Circuit in Japan, Nissan Chief Vehicle Engineer Kazutoshi Mizuno told journalists that the updated model has the potential to turn the Nürburgring circuit in under 7 minutes and 20 seconds.

We’ll remind you that the revised 2012MY GT-R shaved more than two seconds off the time of the 2011MY version dropping it from 7:26.4" to 7:24.22".

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

2013 Cadillac ATS Sedan Development at the Nürburgring Track [Video]


It’s been roughly two weeks since Cadillac dropped the first teaser video of the 2013 ATS at the Nürburgring and now GM has the released the first full installment of its web series dedicated to the development of the premium compact sedan at the so-called "Green Hell".

The Detroit-based company's goal of course is to associate the ATS with its German competition, and specifically the new BMW 3-Series.

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Monday, October 24, 2011

Test Run Shows the McLaren MP4-12C Lapping the 'Ring in 7:28, Faster than the Ferrari 458 Italia


Carmakers don't use the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit only for testing prototypes, as you've seen many times in our scoop section, but also to time their cars and claim some bragging rights against their rivals.

This is one of those stories with the protagonist being the new McLaren MP4-12C sportscar that made its debut run on the Nordschleife with Horst von Saurma, Editor-in-Chief of German magazine Sport Auto, sitting behind the wheel.

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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

SPIED: New Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series Edition Shows Off its Widened Body for the Camera


For all those Mercedes-Benz customers that find the regular AMG variants too tame for their tastes, the Stuttgart automaker's sports car division has come up with a special series of cars that carry the Black Series nameplate.

The Black Series AMG models can be identified by their more extreme bodywork and beefed up performance along with a price tag to match their abilities.

Not even Mercedes-Benz's top offering, the SLS AMG gullwing-door supercar, can escape the Black Series treatment. A lightly disguised prototype version of the SLS AMG Black Series edition was captured by our scoop photographers while testing on the Nürburgring track.

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Tanner Foust Takes 350HP Ford Focus RS500 for a Spin Around the 'Ring [Video]


Professional race car driver and American Top Gear host Tanner Foust was invited to Germany by Ford of Europe to try out the limited production Focus RS500 hot hatch on the famous Nordschleife circuit.

The refresh your memory, the RS500 was a special edition version of the standard Focus RS equipped with a modified 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five delivering 350-horses to the front wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox. Ford only made 500 examples of the car available to the public and 12 units for its own use.

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SPIED: 2014 BMW M3 F30 Shows Up on the Nürburgring Track


Here are some fresh photos of the upcoming, next generation BMW M3 sports sedan wearing some swirly patches of camouflage while testing on the infamous "Green Hell".

Since the last time we posted scoop pictures of the new M3, BMW presented the regular versions of its new 3 sedan, codenamed F30, with the M Sport Package models giving us a taste of what to expect from the golden-boy of the series.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Scooped: Germany's Roding Roadster Takes New Shape


We'll forgive you if you've never heard of the name Roding before. Based in Germany, the company made its first appearance at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show with an odd-looking roadster concept promising to deliver a production version of the two-seat mid-engine sports car in the near future.

Fast forward to today, and our crafty scoop photographers captured a prototype of the Roding Roadster honed at the Nürburgring racetrack. If you take a look at the photos of the original concept, you'll see that Roding has significantly altered the design of the Roadster, which is probably a good thing…

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Monday, October 17, 2011

SCOOP: Watch the 2013 Range Rover Being Thrashed Around the 'Ring in New Spy Video


You have probably already seen the spy shots, but this time, our intrepid scoopsters managed to snag the next generation of Land Rover's luxurious Range Rover SUV on film while testing in and out of the Nurburgring race track.

The Range Rover is long overdue for replacement as the current model has its roots back in the period when Land Rover was owned by the BMW Group. Planned and developed by the Bavarian company, the third generation was introduced in 2002 and was subsequently revised under the ownership of Ford and more recently, Tata Motors.

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