Quick and to the Point with an E30 M3

Incredible video - very to the point clip of a driver literally attacking the 'Ring with a now vintage E30 M3 racer. Incredible the amount of speed the 25 year old E30 can produce with only 4 cylinders. However, it's S14 engine is a truncated version of the epic and venerable M88 BMW six cylinder.

Keep an eye out towards the middle to last three-fourths of the video as it would appear this M3 is Porsche 997-hunting as well.



(Source: AUSRingers.com)

History Lesson: The German Grand Prix(s)

Tomorrow kicks off the 2010 German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring located near, you guessed it, Hockenheim, Germany. The Grand Prix of Deutschland has, for better or worse, been held at the Hockenheimring since 1977 after the shocking 1976 German Grand Prix held at the Nurburgring where Niki Lauda had a suspension failure that pitched his Ferrari 312T into the Armco at Berkwerk resulting in a horrible fire that nearly killed him. The accident reaffirmed what many had thought (ironically the drivers nearly striked that weekend because of safety concerns - led by Lauda - but ultimately didn't) that the Nurburgring wasn't safe and as a result it was never used again for the German Grand Prix - with one small, exception in 1985 at the then-new GP circuit that excluded much of the original track. Many of the problems were to blame on the poor response of the track marshals and crews as fellow drivers had to pull Niki from his burning Ferrari and only a safety marshal with in Porsche 911 and single fire extinguisher was on the scene a first few minutes after the accident.

The Nurburgring has reappeared on the roster of venues for Grand Prix racing but only in the constantly changing European Grand Prix and only on the GP portion of the fabled circuit.

That's a shame too - some pretty important races were held on the old Nurburgring. In 1968, Jackie Stewart had what he would call his "best" Grand Prix of his career when he stormed - literally - to victory when rain struck the race and the Nurburgring was described as "having rivers across the track" in some places. Scary stuff but the scary part was the attrition rate and how much slower everyone was behind Stewart. A handful of cars spun off in the rain while everyone else slowed down so much so that Sir Jackie crossed the finish line a full 4 minutes before second placed Graham Hill caught up. Much of the field being minutes behind that or a full lap down. Stewart pulled off this feat with a broken wrist - which is unheard of in modern racing. You can read his account of it here.



The Nurburgring would go on to scare the hell out of Grand Prix drivers for a few more years until the fateful 1976 race in which Lauda's Ferrari wrecked, caught fire and nearly took Niki to the grave. He managed to fight back from the edge and get into a car at Monza 6 weeks later to come 4th in the Italian Grand Prix - with a head covered in bandages, blood seeping through where the top of his ear used to be. Everyone's probably seen the video of Lauda's crash and the ensuing mayhem so instead of focusing on that, I've listed the video below of the incredible 1975 German Grand Prix where Herr Lauda launched a great start and led much of race until a tire puncture set the Ferrari 312T back in pace and sent him into the pits, allowing the other front-runners to slip past with Reutemann taking the win in his Brabham. Incredible footage of nearly the entire race! It's in 5 pieces so you can catch all of the clips as they're linked into each on YouTube. It's worth watching the entire first clip just to see the outright speed of the cars on track with the green, rolling hills of Germany as a very picturesque backdrop. Out of 26 cars to attempt to run the 1975 German GP - only 10 managed to finish!




I've also included this video of the 1969 German Grand Prix where you can see the advent of aerodynamics beginning to sneak onto the front and rear of grand prix cars. This is nothing but 10 minutes of footage and engine notes!



The 2010 German Grand Prix has Vettel at the front of the pack with Mark Webber just below and the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa and the McLaren twins bearing down on him. Should be interesting to see if Vettel can hold it together and keep the lead or will Webber step out of Sebastian's shadow again for the win.

I only hope that somehow the full Green Hell returns to the list of venues for Formula One.

2011 WRX STi Prototype attacks Zee 'Ring

I guess it's rally day today on eBrake and I'm on a roll. I saw Autoblog's review of the 2011 Subaru WRX STI and ended up searching YouTube for some video of what this thing must sound like. Thankfully, with the slight revision for the 2011 model and the transition back to a sedan -the overall package seems more appealing than than the 2010. Personally, I like the hatchback but it wasn't rated highly against previous STI's.

That said, according to Autoblog the sedan is a big step up for 2011.

Moving on, I found this video by Car and Driver of the new STI sedan prototype crushing the Nurburgring. Subaru even called in Finnish WRC superstar Tommi Makinen to pilot the car. Ironically, Makinen cut his teeth and set his records primarily with the STI's biggest rival, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution blasting across different surfaces of countryside. However, that doesn't matter as he finished his last two years year in WRC with an Impreza, now does it?

Either way, enjoy the new STI in full attack mode at the hands of a master.

NSX in HD

The NSX is one of my favorite modern sportscars. It had an insanely long production cycle yet still remained competitive until the day it was pulled from the factory floor. Ayrton Senna helped develop it too so that's worth a few points of street cred, I suppose.

The guys over at Format67 seem to have a bit of an itch that the NSX can scratch too. Based out of zee Deutschland, Format67 has a history of making incredible, gorgeous HD video of both ultra popular and ultra rare cars. It looks like, from the newest trailer posted to the site, they're taking their craft and applying it to a pre-2002 NSX.

Lucky us - look for the full video to drop later this year. If the trailer doesn't hold you over then check out the quick making of preview they've posted.

TRAILER: HONDA NSX from FORMAT67.NET on Vimeo.

Behind the Scenes at the 24 Hours of Nurburgring

The 2010 24 Hours of Nurburgring is already a part of history with BMW's incredible, unexpected victory by BMW's M3 GT. However, that's just one story in the legacy of the race and with hundreds of entrants competing on what's a deceptively tight, narrow and undulating course for an ungodly 24 hour period.

Thankfully, another entrant decided to document their story, chronicling a Porsche GT3's hard living through 24 hours of the Green Hell. The GT3, of Lammertink Racing's own labors, was put to the ultimate test and filmed doing so by Clash Productions. To enthusiasts, Clash need no introduction if you've seen their incredible Titan Movie preview - these guys know how to catch cars on camera. Check out the video below for some gorgeous footage of the Lammertink Racing GT3 Cup below.






Source: ColdTrackDays

2010 24 Hours of Nurburgring

Audi R8 LMS, originally uploaded by itwasntandy.

Don't forget - One of the biggest, most beloved races in Europe is running this weekend - the 24 Hours of Nurburgring - the ultimate traffic jam at the Green Hell.

You can watch a live streaming of the race from the ADAC 24 Hours website or Axis of Oversteer mentioned they might try to get something on it up - if they aren't too busy watching the Monaco Grand Prix!

Should be a good race this weekend - definitely one of attrition. If I can find more streaming sources I'll post them up.

RUF Yellowbird Storms the Nurburgring

Running a modified 3.2L flat-6 tuned to 469HP, lightened body and revised gear box - the 1987 Ruf CTR was all balls. It was affectionately nicknamed the Yellowbird - and it set all sorts of top speed records and managed to show up the ultimate production Porsche of the time: 959 with its lowly 444HP.

Here we see what happens when Ruf decides to take its ultimate car of the 1980's and put it around the ultimate track of all time: der Nurburgring. Enjoy the full tail-out joy of a light weight, near 500HP, rear wheel drive Porsche.

(Sorry for the poor quality - this has been on the net for a while and is a recording of the original VHS of the lap that was released by Ruf)

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