Getting right to it.
Guest contributor: Ben Allen on surviving the Nürburgring Nordschleife
•October 14, 2011 • 9 Comments
It’s 13 miles long and has 173 corners. Car enthusiasts flock to it like it’s an automotive Mecca. It’s been around since the 1920s and Scottish Formula One icon Jackie Stewart dubbed it “the Green Hell.” It’s claimed countless lives over the past decades. Yet people still go back. It’s the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and if you like cars or motorsport and haven’t visited, you probably should.
One of the world’s most renowned race venues, the Nürburgring gets its name from the medieval village and castle of Nürburg in Germany’s Eifel mountain range, where the circuit is located. Completely enveloped in thick forest, the legendary track rises and falls dramatically as it cuts its way between the local villages and surrounding mountains. It’s quite the spectacle.
But this is not your ordinary circuit. The Nürburgring, or ‘The Ring’ as it’s more commonly known, demands respect, and punishes those who make the slightest error whilst driving it.
Too awesome for words
•October 13, 2011 • 6 Comments956 moment of zen
•October 12, 2011 • 8 Comments
This shot makes us happy
•October 11, 2011 • 2 CommentsCracking good shot by Paul Fenrich— and a reminder that we need to get in our own (proper) fall driving soon. We don’t condone stopping in the middle of the road for an impromptu photoshoot, however 🙂
Not something you see everyday
•October 11, 2011 • 6 CommentsIf a Mazda RX-3 is a rare sight, then an RX-3 race car is doubly so. Looks sweet!
Edit: it’s an RX-2.
Looks like another race track is coming to the Northeast in 2013— maybe
•October 8, 2011 • 1 Comment
Calling itself the “Alpine Motorsports Club,” it wants to offer “the ambiance of the Austrian Tyrol, the atmosphere of a traditional European road-course, and the challenge of a mountain pass in a magnificent and breathtaking setting” (that would be eastern PA, just south of the Poconos— not to mention Pocono Raceway).
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, depending on where you’re sitting), it looks like the owners intend to follow the Monticello Motor Club model of making it a track day “country club,” with only a limited allocation (15%) of days going to car clubs for HPDEs. Will this arrangement last? Only time – and the state of the economy – will tell.
In the meantime, here’s the executive summary:
- Total of 4.2 miles, with the longest of the nine road course configurations being 3.2 miles in length
- Low-to-high elevation change of 220 ft. with one lap total elevation changes of up to 580 ft.
- Designed by Alan Wilson, the man behind Miller Motorsports Park, Calabogie, Barber, Gingerman, BeaveRun, and other North American road courses
- Construction beginning early 2012, with completion projected twelve months later
- Located in Eldred (Monroe County), PA— approx. 100 miles west of New York City and 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia
- Individual membership (should you be so inclined) starting at $10,000 up front and $1,500 in annual dues (“pre-construction pricing”)
Apparently the idea has been kicking around for awhile now (check out this press release from 2006), but then the 2008 global financial crisis struck and it looks like there was a change in ownership at some point as well.
We will be following construction and other developments with great interest.
More here.
Edit: more back story over at Hooniverse.
Guest contributor: Dave Tenbroek on his Audi RS2 Avant
•October 7, 2011 • 10 Comments
The Audi RS2 Avant, a joint collaboration between Porsche and Audi in the early ’90s as well as Audi’s first “RS” car, is a rare beast, with only 2891 examples built from 1994 to 1995. To own one in Canada, where they were never sold*, is to be in a club of exactly four. Meet Dave Tenbroek, member number one of that club.
*Nor were they sold in the US.
MCB: How did you first learn about the Audi RS2?
DT: My journey started way back in high school, when my girlfriend’s brother had a 1977 VW Scirocco S. From that point I became a VW freak and have not looked back. The love affair evolved into Audis when I saw a Coupe Quattro for the first time. I was driving an ’81 Scirocco at the time and had entered it into a winter rally with our local sports car club. Sitting in the parking lot with all the other entrants was a brand new red 1990 Audi Coupe Quatto. What a perfect car for navigating the snow-covered back roads of southern Alberta. I was just blown away that someone would expose such a beautiful car to the elements of this event.
My interest in rally racing and the VW/Audi brand brought me one step closer to the RS2 when one of our national professional rally teams brought over a 1993 Audi S2 from Europe to race in the Canadian Rally Championship. I saw it in person when they made their tour stop in Calgary and was blown away by the power and the sound that came out of this 2.2L 5-cylinder turbocharged engine. It was reportedly putting out 422 hp and 386 lb-ft of torque. It wasn’t long after that the 1994 Audi RS2 started appearing in the car magazines. Of course I was only able to enjoy it in pictures as there was no way we’d be seeing any over in North America.
Motoring Con Brio 