Aston Martin's team of drivers will include the company's boss Dr Ulrich Bez who will be driving in his fourth consecutive 24-hour race, as well as representatives from the automaker's engineering department.
"This is the final engineering durability test for the V12 Vantage programme, said Dr Ulrich Bez. "We will be subjecting the car to the toughest assessment yet under public scrutiny as we successfully did with the Vantage N24 programme," he added.
source: http://carscoop.blogspot.com
The ABT Sportsline and Phoenix Racing teams will hit the 'Ring on May 23 with driver squads consisting of five current Audi "factory" drivers, four DTM Champions, four Le Mans winners and five drivers who have won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring at least once. Among others they include the reigning DTM Champion Timo Scheider, who – together with his DTM teammate Mattias Ekström and three-time Le Mans winner Marco Werner – will compete for Team ABT Sportsline, and three-times 24h Nurburgring winner Hans-Joachim Stuck, who will pilot one of the cars of the Team Phoenix Racing. source: http://carscoop.blogspot.com The Audi teams at the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring: Audi R8 LMS #97 (ABT Sportsline) Audi R8 LMS #98 (Phoenix Racing) Audi R8 LMS #99 (Phoenix Racing) Audi R8 LMS #100 (ABT Sportsline)
"The 24 Hours is not only one of the biggest motorsport events in Germany," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "The Nürburgring-Nordschleife is considered one of the world's toughest and most demanding race tracks. Similar to Sebring for the sports prototypes, it is superbly suited for revealing the final improvement potential of any new race car. This is exactly what we're planning to do at the 24-hour race before delivering the R8 LMS to customers, starting this fall."
Behind the steering wheel of the Impreza WRX STI will be four professional Japanese drivers: Kazuo Shimizu, Toshihiro Yoshida, Naoki Hattori and Koji Matsuda
Entrant name | SUBARU TECNICA INTERNATIONAL(STI) |
Participating car | SUBARU Impreza WRX STI(GRB type) |
Horizontally opposed 4-cylinder EJ20 2.0litter DOHC turbo / SYMMETRICAL AWD | |
Suspension | Front - strut, rear - double wishbone |
Vehicle manufacturer | STI |
Team director | Hideharu Tatsumi (STI General Manager of Vehicle Experiment Division) |
Drivers | Kazuo Shimizu, Toshihiro Yoshida, Naoki Hattori, Koji Matsuda |
The result is an output of just under 300 horsepower and 350Nm or 258-lbs/ft of torque which continue to be transmitted to the front wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch DSG gearbox operated by paddle shifters on the steering wheel. "The Scirocco GT24 already proved its strengths as a dynamic sports coupe by clinching class victory in its debut race last year," said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Kris Nissen. "In 2009, we are taking yet another step forwards by using two different engine concepts. We want to prove that Volkswagen offers different powertrain concepts, all of which excel in terms of high efficiency, dynamics and reliability. The Nordschleife and the 24-Hour Race provide an ideal test bed for this purpose." The two natural gas-powered Scirocco GT24-CNG cars will be driven by Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg (D), Board Member for Technical Development of the Volkswagen Brand, and journalists Bernd Ostmann (D), Peter Wyss (CH) and John Barker (GB) as well as touring car ace Peter Terting (D), Nordschleife expert Thomas Klenke (D), former DTM driver Vanina Ickx (B) and touring car legend Klaus Niedzwiedz (D), two-time overall winner of the 24 Hours on the Nürburgring. The other Scirocco GT24 will be driven by last year's winners Jimmy Johansson (S) and Florian Gruber (D) as well as Nicki Thiim (DK) and Martin Karlhofer (A), while the third car's team will include formula racing specialists Congfu Cheng (CN), Carlo van Dam (NL) and Franck Mailleux (F) as well as the two-time 24-H overall winner Altfrid Heger (D). source: http://carscoop.blogspot.com
Volkswagen said that as a fuel, natural gas is particularly eco-friendly as well as very cost-effective reducing on average CO2 emissions by 25 percent compared with conventional spark ignition engines.
The team of one of the three petrol-powered Scirocco GT24 cars will consists of "Dakar" winner Giniel de Villiers (ZA), two-time World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz (E) as well as Dieter Depping (D).
