Rubber 'Ring: Michelin's 10,000 Horsepower Challenge
Driving and Riding in $6 Million Worth of Supercars at the Nurburgring. What Could Go Wrong?
July 15, 2010 / By Nick Hall

In these increasingly sanitized times, where hot coffee comes with a warning and lawyers chase ambulances in packs, you can't blame anyone for removing risk from the equation and playing it safe. So that's why Michelin's invitation to play with some of the fastest and most ridiculous cars on the planet on the infamous Nordschleife sounded like a late April Fool's joke.

But from behind the wheel of a supercharged, 600-horsepower BMW M3 as the tollbooth rises and our group filters out on to the old Nurburgring, the reality of the situation hits home. This is really happening, and it is either going to be the best day of our lives or the kind of catastrophic PR gaffe that is talked about for decades. To highlight Michelin's love affair with the 'Ring and the grip on offer from the Pilot Sport 2 and Cup tires, new Michelin PR tsar Oscar Pereda persuaded some of the world's top manufacturers and tuners to hand their cars over to relative idiots at a place that is famous for its unforgiving walls.

A Gumpert Apollo Sport, two Wiesmanns, a Corvette ZR1, the ABT Sportsline GT-R, a Manthey Porsche GT3, two TechArts, a Ruf CTR3 and RT12, two G-Power BMWs with a combined output of 1400 horsepower on their own, an Alpina B7 and B3S, MTM's 720-horsepower RS6, and more were all waiting in the pits. In total there was more than 10,000 horsepower and $6 million worth of assorted hardware ready to hit perhaps the toughest track in the world.

For those who have lived in an automotive cave in recent years, the Nordschleife is 14 miles of sinewy, cascading tarmac that used to form an F1 racetrack. But when Niki Lauda almost burned to death in 1976, the circuit Sir Jackie Stewart labeled "the Green Hell" was deemed too dangerous and F1 stopped coming.



Read more: Michelin's 10,000 Horsepower Challenge - Motor Trend

 

Great article, thanks for posting.