Or so claims fastestlaps.com (courtesy of Bimmerboost). That’s 18 seconds faster than the E60 M5 and over half a minute faster than the E39 M5. According to the source it was a BMW test driver who hit the mark. We expect the venerable Horst von Saurma of Sport Auto fame to have a crack at the ‘Ring with the F10 soon.
You can see how it compares to other BMW times after the break.
Flickr member and BMW fan ‘backfromleave’ has what looks to be the best photo-set we’ve seen yet of the Nurburgring 24 Hours held this weekend. Everything from the new M3 CRT to the race itself is represented. Then we have another gallery from Flickr member Kristof Vermeulen/Raceshots.be which features a ton of the race itself. Both are well worth a look. (second gallery after the break)
From day to night and into day again. It was an incredible race full of spectacular crashes and even better racing. And while BMW didn’t capture the overall win as they did last year, you can’t complain too much about 2nd place considering the rigors of the race.
So lets take a look back at the race with a full gallery of the M3′s progress.
While it wasn’t the result BMW had hoped for, 2nd place at the Nurburgring 24 Hours isn’t a bad place to be. The winner this year was the Manthey Porsche team which has had many successes at the ‘Ring over the years in the VLN series.
You can see the start and the finish after the break.
We showed you the M3 GT diving its way through traffic without incident. Now we’ll show you what happens when it all goes wrong. Remember that gorgeous Z4 Coupe race car we showed you a few months ago? It met it’s end at the ‘Ring moments ago as it was squeezed off track but a slower car it was passing. The #77 Team Schubert BMW Z4 GT3 went almost head-on into the barrier at full speed with horrific consequences. Thankfully we can report that the driver is ok.
In other unfortunately BMW related news, an E36 M3 found itself in a similar situation (off the track) late yesterday. (Video after the break).
Many thanks to Youtube user MT89Motorsport2 for his incredible coverage of this race (along with many others). The video above is one lap in the BMW GT as he chases a Ferrari 458. It can only be described has intense. It also shows you what the M3 (and any other GT car) has to deal with on each lap. The amount of traffic to pass on each lap unlike any 24 hour race we can think of.
Official News: It’s almost crunch time at the Nürburgring 24 Hours (DE). With four hours to go before the chequered flag comes out at 16:00hrs local time, last year’s winners Augusto Farfus (BR), Jörg Müller (DE), Uwe Alzen (DE) and Pedro Lamy (PT) hold second place in the overall classification. The gap between the BMW M3 GT carrying number 1 and the leading no. 18 Porsche is 4:47 minutes. It’s Alzen who is currently at the wheel.
Official News: Dawn breaks in the Eifel Mountains. Team BMW Motorsport completed some trouble-free night stints and successfully improved its positions in the Nürburgring 24 Hours (DE).
The no. 1 BMW M3 GT considerably reduced the gap to the front-runners thanks to consistently quick lap times overnight. Since lap 88, Pedro Lamy (PT) is back behind the wheel of the GT race car, currently running in fourth. Before the Portuguese driver, Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE) and Jörg Müller (DE) were on duty at the 25.378-kilometre Nürburgring-Nordschleife.
The BMW M3 GT carrying number 7 continued ploughing through the field during the night. Dirk Müller (DE), Dirk Werner (DE) and Dirk Adorf (DE) gained positions on a lap-by-lap basis, making it back into the top-25 shortly after 05:00hrs.
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Sections: //M5\\, Nürburgring Jun 27th, 2011 3 Comments 
