Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 at Nurburgring
27 May, 2008
11 Comments 
Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 takes first in class at the infamous Nurburgring
-By Anthony Crawford
Aston Martin Chief Executive Officer Dr Ulrich Bez, likes to go racing, particularly in Aston Martin’s these days.
He’s a gifted engineer and firmly believes the best place to test his brand of cars is on a race track. But this guy just doesn’t lead the company; he drives the race cars, and drives them hard.
Three Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 cars, have claimed the top three positions in the SP8 class in this year’s 24-hour Nurburgring endurance race. That included the third place car, nicknamed ‘Kermit’ driven by four drivers including, Dr Bez.
Of course, the N24 car is in fact, a special variant of the V8 Vantage model, named after this very 24-hour Nurburgring race itself.
The first placed car, nicknamed ‘Rose’ was driven by Japanese journalist, Shin-ichi Katsura, Hong Kong writer Matthew Marsh, and German racer Oliver Mathai. This very same car finished 24th outright in 2006, so 18th from 220 starters in 2008, is an exceptional result for one of Britain’s most famous sports carmakers.
‘Kermit’ which was one of the brand new 4.7 litre V8 Vantages, using Aston Martin’s automated manual ‘Sportshift’ gearbox, was actually running ahead of ‘Rose” but was hit while passing another competitor with just on three hours to go. Tragic, to say the least.
The second place N24 was crewed by a private entry team Swiss Gentle Racing, backed by cosmetics giant, Givenchy.
The N24 must be an exceptional car for driver Shin-ichi Katsura to say that “I’ve competed at this circuit before with different cars, but this is the most stability I have ever experienced here. The car is actually very easy to drive, and you can use all its potential with no problems”
Car Advice is hoping to bring you a track test video of the N24 later this year.
In the meantime, stay tuned for a full video review of the DBS and the upgraded V8 Vantage, in a secret location in outback Australia in the coming weeks.
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May 27th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Here’s the full placings (I think), though it’s in german.
adac.24h-rennen.de/en/database.html
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May 27th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Ah this is the same aston as what James May from Top Gear drove naked in, in Sweden. Apparently its not a very comfortable car…
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May 27th, 2008 at 8:25 am
The best Aston Martin was 18th overall, 13 laps down on the winning Porsche and behind two VW Scirocco diesels, a BMW 320 diesel and a Seat Leon. How slow is this car? Maybe there’s a good reason why it wasn’t running in the same class as the Porsches. (Is there a special class for British cars?)
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May 27th, 2008 at 8:59 am
That’s 18th out of 220 starters. The VW Scirocco was driven by world rally guru carlos Sainz as part of that team.
The SEAT Supercopa race car is from one of the most successful race series in Europe and of course Sebastian Stahl or Schumi 111 as he is known, is a very decent steerer who happens to be the stepbrother of Michael and Ralf Schumacher.
FYI, the SP8 class includes; the Viper, Corvette, Gallardo and Porsche Turbo, to name but a few.
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May 27th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Sorry, the Sciroccos were actually petrols. But whatever, a two-litre front-driver shouldn’t be able to beat 4.7 litres of Aston’s finest around that place. I’m sure the Aston drivers weren’t nobodies.
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:06 am
One of the drivers was the AM CEO and the rest appear to have been mostly journos.
Let’s just wait for the V12 Vantage to pop up next year. That should put a cat among the Porsches.
But let’s not forget, the Aston did win the class and it doesn’t get any better than that, does it?
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Thanks Anthony, maybe they were nobodies then, but apparently Bez is quite a peddler.
The only thing better than winning the class is winning outright, so maybe the whole thing proves what an exceptional job the 911 GT3 RSR can do with just 3.8 litres and no turbo.
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May 27th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Can’t argue with that Captain, we hope to drive a GT3 RS on the ring later this year and film it, of course.
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May 27th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
The Scirocco’s ran largely the same drivetrain as the Mk5 Golf GTI in last year’s event which actually placed in the top 10. I do know the Sciroccos this year had some aftermarket APR go fast bits, not sure if the same applied to the GTI in 2007.
Apparently the Volkswagen Motorsport team is very well prepared and leaves nothing to chance.
Pretty cool to get all 3 Sciroccos over the line, especially given the car is not actually for sale yet.
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September 5th, 2008 at 4:21 am
I love the ASton Martin. I don’t think there is one model that I haven’t loved.
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October 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
Well Aston Martin didn’t do terrible - but they could have done better.
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