Steve Martin

Ringmasters: 15 fastest Nürburgring lappershttp://autos.ca.msn.com/photos/galle...entid=21231722


http://autos.ca.msn.com/photos/galle...1231722&page=2

15th - 7min 35 sec to a fastest time of 6 min 55 sec. 15 fastest cars all 40 sec apart.

IXLR8

This is a production vehicle? Well OK.

Radical SR8

Brian 162

There was a ZR1 Corvette on You Tube that came in at 7 min. 26 sec.

TurboS

Anybody believe the Nissan GT R is faster than the GT 2?

7m 26s 70ms: Nissan GT-R

Ronan

These are production car numbers; the fastest lap ever, ( my recollection may be a bit fuzzy) was by Stefan Belloff in a Porsche 956. It was around 6:15, which is simply amazing to me.

Steve Martin

this was something that I came across on msn. nothing that I'm claiming to be an expert about, just thought you guys might have been interested in.....

IXLR8

Porsche 996 GT2 at the Nürburgring in 7'15" and this guy is very smooth and in control, unlike the Corvette and Viper runs.

TurboS

There is no way that car is a Stock 996 GT2, although very capable it's not faster than that current 997 GT 2.

IXLR8

Unfortunately, very little is known about the details of any of the cars we see on YouTube or elsewhere.

This is another fun watch but has nothing to do with the 15 fastest by the OP. But it looks like they are having loads of fun.

Viper vs Porsche GT3 RS Cup on the Nürburgring

Dale Gribble

Stephan Belof is epicness concentrate.

This guy not only has the fastest outright N'Ring Lap Evarrr, but died in the most glorious fashion ever, trying to muscle his 956 around an opponant thru the OUTSIDE of Eau Rouge, after having previously broken the circuit record in the same race. He felt the need to try to break his own record again, just for ****s and giggles. Oh, and to top it all off, I believe it might have been a less than dry track (will double check the litterature next time i'm in toronto).

Ronan

Here is Derek Bell doing it in 6:41 in a Porsche 956. Simply amazing, though very old vid, so quality not great....(now replaced with a better quality copy from Alex)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpyEW1jGBL8

Torontoworker

It's not very glorious when you attempt a stupid pass and die as a result. It was an utterly tragic and stupid mistake on his part that could have killed Jackie as well and all because he had to prove to his former team that HE was the fastest driver out there. Which is quite silly when you think about the fact that it was endurance racing series. The fact that Hans Stuck took over his seat and there had been 'comments' from Porsche (not helpful) to the fact that the team had 'stepped up its efforts' to win the championship again by hiring Stuck had to be galling to Bellof, (as was the non-invite to LeMans).

There had been hints about his tendency to 'lose it' mentally a few races before this in F1 when he felt under the gun with Brundle his Tyrrell team-mate, who despite being slower had better race results. There was also the fact that Ferrari had offered him a contract for the following year in F1 and he *may* have felt had something to prove.

Here is an interesting quote from Bell: "during an interview for the January 2007 issue of the '911 and Porsche World' magazine, team-mate Derek Bell felt Bellof's death was caused by lack of discipline in his driving style, and that the blame for his death lay with those around Bellof, including team personnel, who should have allowed him to mature". I don’t know what this means as he no longer raced for the factory so I don’t know if Bell meant Porsche should never had allowed him to leave the team or if Walter Brun was supposed to control him???

It was said at the time that the factory had good reason to release him after his Championship winning season (Shared with Bell) as the knock against him was that he was a car breaker / wreaker. At the time Bellof claimed HE left the team so that he could 'concentrate' on the coming F1 season and that the reason for signing with the Brun team was because he needed the money to give to Ken for the coming F1 season. I don’t understand this reasoning as he had his Rothman money in 1983 that he used for F1 that year. Unless Brun was going to pay a whole lot more (which is possible) I can’t see his *need* to switch teams.

People gloss over the fact that he set the all time race and qualifying record at the Ring (old track) but he also crashed in one of his typical pushing too hard mistakes in this VERY race after spinning off into the guardrail at the Pflanzgarten section (2nd bend) at 160mph and writing off the chassis.


Porsche was sent a bill by ADAC for somewhere near 100,000DM for guardrail replacement and that rumour has it that Porsche sent a note back that loosely said something like, 'get stuffed' in German.

As far as Spa 1984: There was ONE line through that corner that day and Bellof decide to see if he could push his way past Ickx. The ironic part of the whole deal was that Ickx was in a new build 962C (not IMSA spec - but twin turbo) and Bellof was in an older 956. Had Bellof still been with the Rothman team and had he crashed a team car he *may* have had a greater chance to survive the head on impact - but with part of his body (knees forward) protruding past the centerline of the front wheels in the 956, (unlike the 962C) - it was game over.

If you watch what is a very uncomfortable video below you can see the Brun car out of the front windscreen of Ickx's car (that had the fortune to go into the barriers backwards) and there isn't much left of the front end of the 956.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgtZe-iQH1U

It is said that this crash sealed the deal on Ickx's WSC racing as he didn't have the taste for it any longer and retired at the end of this season. A very sad season for Porsche as a few races before this - they lost another great German hope and fellow F1 driver - Winkelhock at Mosport (turn 2A) a race and a corner I was at - not less then 40ft away.

He was a great driver and like all ultra fast drivers, Gilles included, they sometimes had flaws that on a bad day - made it a *very* bad day. RIP SB.

jamesjedi

Is corner 2A where the car has a downhill, negative camber? It is a corner that does not look safe. Scarry. One has to question why it was never made into a safer corner. Lots of places to get into trouble at that track. Perhaps, needless trouble.

Torontoworker

Yes 2A is a double apex downhill left hand turn that drops about 200'. It is a lot safer believe it or not today then it once was.

Before my time marshaling it had nothing but sand burms at the outside of the turn.

Then Jackie the wee Scott made his first visit and a cement walls were put up that were fourteen feet (yes you read that correctly) away from the edge of the track all the way around turn two and down and around to turn three.

The *theory* was... that if you went off the track - the walls were so close that you didn't have much energy and were at a shallow angle and you scrubbed off speed as you scraped along them.

Theory works better for non drivers!

In Manfreds case he either didn't have a tire nut put on the right front correctly and the first left hand turn on his pit out and the tire came off or he had a puncture. Given the fact that the remains of the car were air freighted out of the country on a special charter by the Kremer brothers before Durham Regional police could impound it - well my money goes to the wheel nut issue. Anyway the car went straight off way before the first apex without turning in what so ever and hit the outside wall at something close to 170kph.

Unfortunately the driver postion was on the right side in the 962C in those days and although the front of the car took a 3/4 blow and sort of looked ok - the windscreen has a roll bar that ran around the frame of the window and it was this part of the car that came into his drivers postion. The rest is gory and not needed here. I spoke to a long gone track doctor, a well loved guy who really cared about motorsport and volunteered his time for the sport and he did everything he could for Manfred before they put him on the copter to Sunnybrook.

Then the wall came down and was moved way back.

For many years after this there was a swamp drivers right at the very bottom and if you went straight off you hit a small row of tires (stupidly laying flat on the ground) and then if you still had energy - you flew up into the air to land in 3 feet of water! I know all about that swamp as I pulled a driver out of an IMSA GTU class RX7 who had gone upside down and was trapped under water.
I looked like John Candy after he got out of the mud wrestling ring in the movie Stripes!


Now we have tires stacked six deep the proper way and banded so it IS a lot better. It's still a 'take a deep breath' corner but the 'cost' if you get it wrong is pretty much damage from the tires and not injury to yourself.

The off camber you can blame on my dad - he did the grading at Mosport! I asked him last year what he was thinking and at the time they had no walls anywhere and the off camber was for water runoff - hence the old swamp at the bottom of the hill. The corner wouldn't be the same if it had positive banking or a deep gravel trap all around it. Then everyone would just try to go flat out around it without worrying about the consequences.

The fastest vehicle to ever go around this corner was, (timed from the top of 2 to the middle of corner 3) ??? One point each for the driver and the car model. Anyone...? I'll post the answer after a few guesses.

Mark Lue

Dindo Cappelo in an Audi R8.