Pictures from this past weekend's endurance race at the Nürburgring...

[nodubjustyet]

Here are a few pics (and videos this weekend) from the April 14 Langstrecken Meisterschaft Nürburgring (VLN) 37. DMV 4-Stunden-Rennen. Check out: http://www.vln.de/rennen.gb.php?id=2012-04-14 for the entry list and race results.

For those of you not familiar with the VLN race series: It's a handful of races (11) that are only held at the Nürburgring. The competitors are everything from purpose-built racecars that you might also see in various events including the Nürburgring 24hr Race and LeMans all the way down to amateur teams fielding race-modified hatchbacks.

We had a really fun time... €15 got us access to the grandstands as well as the paddock area... and the pits! We pretty much had full access and were only feet from the teams during pitstops. It was pretty awesome. We also got to meet some lady named Sabine Schmitz - you might know her from Top Gear appearances and the BMW 'Ring Taxi... Oh yeah, she also has about 20,000 laps under her belt.

I will try and post up pictures from Saturday night and Sunday morning's Touristenfahrten

Heico Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 going hot into the corner



SLK, Z4, GT3 RSs and Scirocco entering the Castrol-S



Scherer Audi TT-RS



SEAT Cupra



Honda Civic and a new Toyota GT-86



Aston Martin Vantage



Black Falcon Mercedes 190E



BMW Z4 (GT3 Class)



Porsche 911 GT3 (997)



McLaren MP4 (GT3 class)



Opel Astra GTC



Porsche 911 GT3 Cup



Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3



Black Falcon BMW M3



Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS



Falken Porsche 911 GT3 R



Toyota GT-86



Porsche 911 GT3



beautiful BBS centerlock wheel with rain tires



Audi TT-RS



Porsche 911 RSR



H&R's Ford GT



Porsche 911 GT3 Cup



Frikadelli Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (997)



My brother, Sabine Schmitz, and Me - our long lost cousin



BMW M3 GT4



MSC Adenau's Porsche Cayman



VW Scirocco 2.0 TDI



Car Collection Motorsport's 911 GT3 Cup and the Paul Parey 911 GT3



Tin Tag Ferrari F458



Ginetta G50



H&R Ford GT



Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Black Falcon MB 190E



Gazoo Racing Lexus LF-A



Audi TT-S and a VW Scirocco

[Toftii88]

Damn. Thanks for sharing.

[Stumanbmx]

Very cool pics. Looks like an awesome trip! I would love to go someday.

[sprstu]

spectators were allowed right next to cars in the pits?! seems like a crowd control nightmare. I wouldn't hesitate to get so up close but man, one slip and you could really mess with a team.

[nodubjustyet]

Things are pretty lax... They're not pulling F1 pitstops either. You're not making or breaking a race in the pits.

[9jetta6]

awesome, that was one sweet LF-A

[jdswell]

Nice photos. Did they run the full Nordschleife course too? I visited the Manthey shop there in '10.

[nodubjustyet]

Nice photos. Did they run the full Nordschleife course too? I visited the Manthey shop there in '10.

There are four Nürburgring configurations:

1. Nordschleife only - mainly just seen during tourist drives
2. Grand Prix Course - F1, DTM, Moto GP, Semi-trucks, etc.
3. V-spec Course - Nordschleife plus a part of the GP course
4. 24hr Course - The entire GP course plus the Nordschleife

The VLN race uses #3 - this what we were able to drive on during the tourist drive too. So that was pretty awesome.

If you have GT5 you can race on this modified version along with the other configurations.