MundoMotorizado.com

Este fin de semana en la VLN que tomaron como shakedown...

Aston Martin V12 Zagato Makes Race Debut At The Nurburgring
By Viknesh Vijayenthiran © motorauthority.com

We just can’t get enough of the sultry Aston Martin V12 Zagato and we hope you can’t either as we now have a new gallery of the coachbuilt coupe at its official race debut this past weekend at the 53rd ADAC ACAS H&R-Cup leg of the VLN series at Germany’s notorious Nurburgring circuit.

Decked out in full race trim, the V12 Zagato only completed a couple of scheduled laps of the famous circuit though it’s set to make several more appearances over the coming weeks as the VLN series progresses. As explained by Aston Martin spokesman Matthew Clarke prior to the race, this was only the car’s first shakedown trial and any issues determined will be worked on as development continues.

The VLN, short for Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nurburgring, is a localized endurance race series held at the German circuit each year and is the perfect breeding ground for performance marques such as Aston Martin to fine tune its designs, not only for racing but also for production cars. Participants range from amateurs in small road legal cars with roll-cages and harnesses to professional factory teams racing ex-DTM cars so competition is always fierce.

Aston Martin now plans to field a pair of V12 Zagatos, the green one you see here and a race prepped version of the red example first revealed a week ago at the 2011 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, in the highlight of the VLN series, the Nurburgring 24 Hours endurance race, which this year kicks off on June 24



















*Aston Martin V12 Zagato race car - Copyright High Gear Media

Mas fino que esto no hay, y eligen solo pilotos ingleses. Veo un poco palido para ser British Racing Green, pero igual esta lindo.

Aprovecho el tema de la VLN, porque el Porsche Hybrid en su version 2.0 hizo historia al obtener su primera victoria este sabado gracias a Patrick Long, Richard Lietz y Marco Holzer, gracias al eficiente consumo del auto lograron hacer unicamente dos paradas en Pits al contrario de los demas equipos que tuvieron que parar 3 veces, permitiendoles asi tomar ventaja de esto y del buen desempeño del auto en pista para llevarse asi la victoria. Aquí el comunicado oficial que hace Porsche:

Efficiency yields first race win
Stuttgart. Refuel less, drive longer: That’s the recipe for success of the further developed 911 GT3 R Hybrid: At the wheel of the Version 2.0 race car, Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz (Austria), Marco Holzer (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) clinched the first victory for the innovative race car from Weissach at round four of the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship. While almost all other direct opponents had to pit three times to refuel, the Hybrid-911 made only two stops and with this yielded the first victory for a Hybrid-Porsche. Well known for its efficiency, Manthey Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Porsche factory drivers Marc Lieb (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) as well as Manthey pilot Lucas Luhr (Switzerland) also managed with two pit stops and made Porsche’s double victory perfect.

The second race outing of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid in the 2011 Long Distance Championship marked the successful conclusion to intensive preparations for the Nürburgring 24 hour race on 25/26 June. “We’re very pleased with the technical level of the vehicle and the reliability of the hybrid system,” says Hartmut Kristen, Head of Motorsport at Porsche. “Compared to our rivals, we saved one pit stop and with less external energy input our lap times were just as quick. This is what we mean by Porsche Intelligent Performance. I’m particularly thrilled that Manthey Racing’s 911 GT3 RSR also underlined the famed efficiency of the Porsche 911 models and clinched second place.”

Priority in the further development of the 911 GT3 R Hybrid was clearly on increasing efficiency. For this, the weight of the vehicle, including the hybrid components, was reduced from 1,350 to 1,300 kilograms. The weight of the hybrid components was reduced by 20 percent through targeted optimisation. The general hybrid layout was adopted from the 2010 model.

The output of both electric motors in the portal axle increased from 60 to 75 kilowatts each. For seconds at a time, pilots now have about 200 hp more at their disposal, which equals ca. 23 kW (32 hp) of additional conventional power per Nordschleife lap. Depending on the programming, this electrical power is automatically activated through use of the throttle pedal. Moreover, hybrid pilots can manually call up this extra power, for instance when overtaking. With the portal axle driving the front wheels, the four-litre, now 465 hp six-cylinder boxer engine, which drives the rear axle, was reduced in power and optimised with respect to fuel consumption.

“Our Hybrid-911 ran like clockwork,” says Marco Holzer. “Aside from the reliable technology and low fuel consumption, the key to success today was that we all drive at similarly high speeds and we didn’t make any mistakes,” adds teammate Richard Lietz.

The yellow and green Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR also drove a faultless race. Trailing by just seven seconds, Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr claimed second place. “That race was almost perfect. Unfortunately our 911 GT3 R, which I shared with Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, was shunted rather roughly from the track by a competitor,” says double-starter Marc Lieb.

Public Relations and Media
Motor and Sports Press
Oliver Hilger

Mas fotos © Porsche

que belleza!!!