The hottest weekends of the year are yet to come. Not because the summer heat has fallen on Germany. Pentecost is said to have brought temperatures above 30 ° almost everywhere. But because we have the two most important motorsport events of the year on our doorstep and in the calendar. The whole world is watching LeMans next week.
24h at Le Mans
On the 15. and 16. June is the Circuit de la Sarthe around. A certain Fernando Alonso, he should drive for Ferrari in the Formula 1 (?), Will swing the start flag and send a colorful field on the journey. 24 hours were never longer than this race. Because this time the VW Group is fighting with two brands for the win and against the leaders of the WEC (Toyota set as a favorite for Le Mans). And the VW group will be Le Mans permanent winner Audi and the returnee Porsche in the race. That could end embarrassingly if the Toyota takes overall victory after 24 hours. rightly you will ask yourself why you spend twice as much money as before, just to be driven around by the hybrid athletes from Japan?
Le Mans not only fascinates us fans from Europe. Le Mans has a resounding name all over the world and so not only does Toyota come to the world's most important long-distance race, Nissan is also looking for the challenge. In this case, you don't want to aim for overall victory, but rather convince with a new idea:
The Nissan ZEOD RC will be on the weekend of the 14./15. June became the first racing car in Le Mans history to complete a complete lap purely electrically. Then a newly developed three-cylinder petrol engine (Nissan DIG-T R) takes over the propulsion until the next regular pit stop. The turbocharged unit weighs only 40 kilograms and generates around 1,5 hp from a 400 liter displacement. The Spaniard Lucas Ordoñez, Satoshi Motoyama and the Belgian Wolfgang Reib, the best of the European academy class in 2012 and most recently mainly occupied with test drives in the ZEOD RC, pilot the electric rocket.
#eatsleepRACErepeat
Because not only the 24h hours in the French no-man's-land are attacked, also the second important motorsport event is considered by the Japanese with the necessary seriousness.
24h at the Nürburgring
While in Le Mans the sports prototypes determine the action and make the overall victory among themselves, are at the Nürburgring 175 vehicles from all classes at the start. The Nürburgring offers every year again, the biggest motorsport party you know in the scene. Nowhere are more vehicles at the start, more drivers, more brands, than in the Eifel.
And Nissan will be launching three Nissan GT-R GT3 this year (Godzilla returns) And not only rely on the power of the beefy GT3 cars. This is about more, here you want, unlike the ZEOD RC experiment at the Sarthe, have a say in the overall victory! One of the GT3-GT-R is therefore also driven by ex-Formula 1 pro Nick Heidfeld and the squad from ex-console players is used. That you can deal with the monstrous GT-R neat, has already been shown at the last VLN races.
A week after Le Mans (June 21.6st/June 22.6nd) there will be another 24-hour race in the Eifel. The coming days will be a real “speed festival” for motorsport fans. There's time to sleep after the races!
Everything you need to know, everything that matters - you can find here in the blog (24h special) and at the Colleagues from the AWR magazine.