#Nurburgring24

If you love motorsports, this might just be the best weekend of the year.

It’s one of the world’s most prestigious and amazing car races, but good luck trying to catch it on TV.

Arguably the world’s toughest endurance race, the 2012 Nürburgring 24 Hours ended with the Audi Sport Team Phoenix R8 LMS ultra capturing the victory after 155 grueling laps on the ‘Green Hell’.

After seeing the top spot on the podium go to BMW in 2010, Porsche has back on top at the Nurburgring 24 Hour Race with the Manthey Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR claiming the victory at what might be the world’s most grueling endurance race. The Manthey racing car has placed first five out of the six past years.

Having just unveiled the new Cooper Coupe, MINI is looking to drive home the car’s performance message by competing with a race-prepped version of the two-door at this weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hour race.

Subaru will be represented by Subaru Tecnica International (STI) at this year’s 24-hour of Nurburgring race. Rolling in their new and improved 2011 WRX STI “ts”, the STI team has been very busy testing and tuning in order to compete in the SP3t class. Most recently the STI NBR Challenge 2011, the nickname for the race car, did some testing out at Fuji Speedway.

After announcing the widebody Golf24 race car for competition in this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hour race, Volkswagen has just released video of the car undergoing testing in preparation for its debut.

Volkswagen just made the famed Nurburgring 24 hour race even more exciting by announcing their Golf24 touring car will compete at the historic endurance event this year.

Movie producer turned investor and serious car nut James Glickenhaus has just revealed the final renderings of what his P4/5 Competizione race car will look like. Set to compete at next year’s Nurburgring 24 Hour race, the car is a followup to his Ferrari Enzo-based P4/5 supercar that was designed by Pininfarina.

Shown for the first time on U.S. soil, Aston Martin had on display a racing version of its new Rapide four-door at The Quail. One of the lead-up events to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, The Quail puts the emphasis on motorsports, and what better way to do so than with this four-door race car straight from its inaugural session at the grueling Nürburgring 24 Hour race.

Porsche Works driver Timo Bernhard has just earned his place in the history books, becoming the first driver to ever win all four major endurance races. Bernhard completed the “motorsports grand slam” this past weekend, racing not for Porsche, but for Audi in one of the new R15 race cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Endurance racing fans are no doubt getting geared up for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, but German videographers Tim and Nick Hahne have just released this stunning HD video from this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hour race. Rather than focusing on the racing action out on the track, the Hahne’s instead provide an intriguing and artistic viewpoint from pit lane.

All 19500 frames of HD video were captured using Canon’s amazing 5D Mark II, a DSLR camera designed primarily for capturing still images but is also a growingly popular choice amongst amateur and professional videographers. With extremely high quality HD video capabilities and a wide range of high quality zoom and fixed lenses, it’s easy to see why automotive journalists (including some of us at AutoGuide) are partial to the 5D Mark II.

’24 Hours in 19500 Frames’ isn’t your typical 3-minute fast-paced internet motorsports video. There’s no tire smoke, no dudes wearing crooked baseball caps flashing the bull horns hand symbol, and no heavy metal sound track. Instead, the Hahne’s have taken a far more artistic approach that provides a real sense of atmosphere at this legendary endurance race, all 13-minutes and 19500 frames of it feeling strangely hypnotic, like a night out at a German motorsports rave. It’s certainly not designed for the Attention Deficit Disorder generation, but regardless of your age we highly recommend you sit back and soak in the ambience and style of the Hahne’s creation, available after the jump.

[Source: Autoblog]

The Porsche 918 Spyder is hot. Really hot. With looks that will stop anyone, gearhead or not, dead in their tracks, and huge numbers like 718 horsepower and 90 miles per gallon, what’s not to love? TeamSpeed.com forum member “PorscheCarreraGTMay6” is 13 years old, and decided that Porsche could use some renderings, some inspiration, for turning the 918 Spyder into a GTI racing car for the LeMans series. After all, it’s one number higher than the world’s most famous racing Porsche, the 917, and Porsche has already confirmed they will be entering a 918 in the 2011 24 Hours of Nurburgring, where their 911 GT3R Hybrid competed successfully this year.

Clash Productions just posted this highly entertaining in-car video on YouTube, featuring world-class Touring and GT racing driver Tom Coronel in the Lammertink Racing Toyo Tires Porsche GT3 Cup car at the start of this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hour endurance race. We particularly enjoyed the start, where Coronel mixes it up with one of the Gazoo Racing Lexus LFA’s as well as a few other Porsches.

Coronel then shows some amazing pace through the higher speed sections of the Ring before being passed by a Ferrari on the impossibly long main straight. But like the crafty veteran he is, Coronel (whose name you may recognize as the driver from the record-setting lap he did around the Ring last year in a Dodge Viper ACR) ducks in behind the Ferrari and slipsteams it down the straight, slingshotting past just before the insanely quick lefthander that leads down the hill towards the GP portion of the circuit.

Back on the GP track near the end of the lap, the Ferrari and the LFA make another appearance as they pass Coronel’s Porsche. The fact that the SP8 class Lexus was able to hang with the quicker SP7 class Porsche GT3 Cup and Ferrari F430 GTC machines says a lot about just how good the LFA really is.

Enjoy the video after the jump.

“A racecar for the street” is one of auto journalism’s most wretched cliches, but the moniker might be fit for one car in the world; the Porsche 911 GT3 RS.