Official confirmation of a release date for Audi’s R8 Spyder is no closer to being locked away. However, the 5.2-litre V10 rag top is not shying away from Nürburgring testing, as this video shows. The sight and sound of the 525bhp V10 powered R8 is one well worth watching.

According to autoblog, pencil in a first public reveal at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.

[Source: Jalopnik]

Alpina is a name well known when it comes to performance BMWs. At the recent Nürburgring 24 hour race they entered two B6 GT3 racers, based on the BMW 6 Series Coupé.

The B6 GT3 has 530bhp and 750Nm of torque, tipping the scales at 1350kg (click here for full specs). While it is safe to say the race didn’t go all their own way the Alpina team was very pleased to have both cars complete the 24 hour enduro.

After the race team boss Andreas Bovensiepen said, “Of course it was a bold decision to run such a new car in a 24h race, especially at the gruelling Nürburgring. However, we demonstrated that the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 is already showing signs of being a very reliable car with a lots of potential.”

A short promo clip of the cars in action can be seen after the jump. Or, if you’d like to see some pictures of the B6 at the Ring, check out the Alpina website.

[Source: alpina-gt3.com | Thanks to Tiaan for the tip]

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Apologies for the late notice, but you’d better plan to park yourself on the couch this afternoon. Switch your telly to SBS TV’s Speedweek program which starts at 1pm (check local guides).

This is a one-hour TV doco shot by Stuart Greaves from Adrenaline Video with the support of Tony Quinn and his team.

See Tony’s fabulous Porsche 997 RSR and drivers Tony and Klark Quinn, Craig Baird and Grant Denyer at this incredible race.

If you miss today’s broadcast then keep an eye out for repeats on Fox Sports—Inside Speed (24 June) and Speedweek (22 July).

UPDATE: Looks like the repeat of Inside Speed will be on Fox Sports 1 this Wednesday (24 June) at 10:30pm.

Top Gear Australia are offering up a trip for two to the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The prize includes airfares, accommodation and, the best part, driver tuition with Ron Simons from RSR Nurburg. You must be over 18 to enter, hold an Australian driving licence and be able to travel in the last week of August this year.

So what are you waiting for… Click on the image above for your chance to win!

Entries close on 26 July and full terms can be read here.

This video is a couple of years old now, but it’s one of the better TF videos around. There’s not much detail about the car or driver. All we know is that the car in front is a 997 GT3 RS and presumably the car with the camera is too. What is clear, though, is that both man and machine are working very well together, as the two cars dice for a full lap of the Ring.

Well, almost. The onboard camera gives a great view of proceedings until the Kleines Karussell, where things take on an entirely different view. I guess, if you have to capture video of rolling a Porsche, then letting the camera do all the work is very much the preferred option!

[Thanks to Eddie for the tip]

Thanks to AUSringers reader Ryan for sending in this clip of his BMW Ring-Taxi experience. Ryan and his wife, in Europe on their honeymoon, were lucky enough to have Sabine Schmitz as their tour guide.

You’ll have to forgive Ryan’s camera work, as I’m sure you can imagine holding the camera still while Sabine exploits every one of the BMW M5’s 507 horsepower would be nigh on impossible!

For more on the BMW Ring-Taxi check out the BMW Motorsport website or watch the YouTube clip after the jump.

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Thanks to Mathias for highlighting this image of  the Mal Rose Racing Holden Commodore in action at this weekend’s Spa 12 hour race. Mal and his team suffered some bad luck at the N24 a couple of weeks ago and, unfortunately, it looks like things haven’t improved with the trip across the border. The official scoreboard has the Commodore down for just 51 laps.

No doubt Mal will update his mailing list on his return to Australia. I’ll be sure to pass on any news that comes my way.

[Source: belgiumdigital.com]

The Nürburgring 24 hour race is a tremendous test of endurance for both man and machine. Imagine the relief, then, as the cars cross the line for the last time. Here you can see the four Audi R8 LMS cars finish in formation before the #1 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 RSR crosses the line to claim its fourth consecutive win.

You will also see our very own Stu Jones get some air time in the Osborne Motorsports Toyota Corolla. Nice work Stu!

There are now quite a few YouTube clips appearing from this year’s Nürburgring 24 hour race. This is a clip is from the first 10 minutes or so of the 2009 N24 race. It’s a good example of the staggered starting process, where the cars are broken up by category for three separate rolling starts. With a field of 200-ish cars you need to think of these things!

This is the Devon Motor Works GTX. I’d never heard of it either. Thing is, these guys reckon they’ve got what it takes to break the “production car” record around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. The current bar sits at 7 minutes 22.1 seconds, as set by the Dodge Viper ACR in August last year.

Okay, so who are these Devon Motor Works (DMW) folks anyway? They’re an American company who, in an ironic twist, are the only ones to have tabled a bona fide bid to buy the Dodge Viper business from Chrysler. True to their Nürburgring ambitions, DMW went in lowballed that bid, too, believed to be just US$5.5M.

Should DMW get their way they will have access to the Viper production facility. This would be handy, as the GTX, pictured above, is simply an early concept car at this stage. Therefore having the keys to the Viper room would help the GTX’s dream become a reality.

However, DMW plans to boldly go where no “production car” has gone sometime in July with an attempt at beating the ACR’s lap time. All this before an official prototype is revealed at the Pebble Beach Concourse in August.

[Source: Top Gear & Motor Authority]

In front of over 230,000 fans it was the Manthey Racing #1 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Timo Bernhard (Germany), Marc Lieb (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) and Marcel Tiemann (Monaco) that won the race.

Team boss, Olaf Manthey was a very happy man, “I’m incredibly proud of my entire team and my drivers. I couldn’t imagine a better line-up than Timo, Marc, Romain and Marcel. But that said, Richard, Wolf, Emmanuel and Dirk also delivered a super performance with our 911 GT3 Cup S. It’s just a shame that changing the drive shaft cost us 24 minutes. Otherwise we could have brought home a double win today.”

AUSringers brought you news of Manthey Racing’s victory as it happened, and, now the Porsche PR crew have done their thing and issued a media release, which can be viewed below.

Also spliced in with the Porsche blurb are driver quotes from the podium finishers, as issued by ADAC Zurich 24h-Rennen communications.

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Following the pre-race gallery, here are a selection of images from the 2009 Nürburgring 24 hour race, courtesy of the official race website.

All pictures can be viewed as wallpaper sized 2000px super images by click on each image.

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To celebrate the debut of the Audi R8 LMS at the Nürburgring 24 hour race here are a couple of press documents for download that answer everything you ever wanted to know, but were too afraid to ask.

• Audi R8 LMS Media Info 24h Nürburgring (2.7mb PDF)
• Audi R8 LMS Media Info (1.6mb PDF)

Audi Motorsport went to the Nürburgring 24 hour race this year with high hopes. Four new R8 LMS GT3 category racers were entered with some of the sport’s biggest names at the wheel. To subject the new racecars to such a tough test was a big commitment.

This commitment almost paid the most handsome dividends with the #99 Phoenix Racing entry coming close to posting a maiden victory. It lead the race for almost 17 hours before a drive shaft problem with five hours to go saw them lose valuable time. Despite this, the car was still able to finish strongly in fifth position overall.

However, so well placed were the big R8s that the #97 Abt Sportline car was able to claim an impressive podium finish, coming home in second position, behind Nürburgring 24 hour race specialists Manthey Racing. Running in the SP9 GT3 class the Abt Sportline machine, driven by Christian Abt, Jean-François Hemroulle, Pierre Kaffer and Lucas Luhr, finished two laps ahead of its nearest rival, a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, to win its class. In doing so, they completed 154 laps, which broke the previous distance record for laps completed in the 24 hour race by three laps. They were on the lead lap nearing race end, too, before an uncacnny tactical move saw the winning Manthey car squeeze in one more lap.

The #98 and #100 cars suffered some issues throughout the race, but were still able to finish in good form, crossing the line in positions 12 and 23 respectively. When you consider the #100 car suffered its problems very early on in the race, to finish in the top 25 after coming back from 166th was a great result.

Head of Audi Motorsport, Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, was well pleased with the outcome, “For the Audi R8 LMS, this race was a final test under extreme conditions on the world’s longest race track. We were able to show that our new GT3 sports car is absolutely competitive for customer sport. And the number 97 Audi R8 LMS ran without the slightest problems despite the incredibly high speed. We’re going to analyze the problems that occurred on the other three vehicles and feed the findings into the final version of the R8 LMS to be delivered to customers starting this fall. We know that we’ve got a very good base.”

Another huge image gallery of over 80 images can be viewed below, along with press statements from all the teams. For an excellent summary of all Audis competing at the Nürburgring 24 hour race this year check out Fourtitude.com.

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It’s been a big week for Stu Jones and his mates at Osborne Motorsports. A long haul flight from Sydney to Frankfurt, a massive effort from everyone in the team to prepare, drive and repair the racecar in the 24 hour race and, now, another long haul flight back to Australia.

But, if you’re like me, you would have loved to have been there too. Riding every wave of emotion, rubbing shoulders with some of motorsports elite and just generally ticking a very big box in that thing called life.

After getting the TXT from Stu saying they had gearbox problems I started feeling a bit down, and just wishing they could get the car back out on the track. My feelings picked up when I heard the car was back racing, but when I saw Stu crossing the finish line in the group of cars behind the winning Manthey Racing Porsche I had the broadest smile. I can only imagine how chuffed the team must have felt to see their car cross the line after a very tough day. Well done them!

Stu has been very kind to send through updates to AUSringers throughout his journey and his last update, written at Frankfurt airport, is the perfect postscript. We mightn’t be there, but Stu has helped bring his experience a little bit closer to Australia than the 15,000 kilometres would suggest. A big vote of thanks to Stu for his time and effort.

UPDATE 27 May: New text from Stu added below, as well as a couple of images, with thanks to AUSringers regular reader Obi.

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