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Road Ragers at the Nürburgring
It's the morning after the Nürburgring 24 Hours, the amazing racing marathon on the old, twisting Nordschleife where 220 cars race day and night. We're at Brunchen, everyone's favorite corner for race-watching, and it's rather like wandering downstairs after a party to be greeted by a living room full of empty beer cans and rearranged sofa cushions, except here we're parked up among, well, empty beer kegs and completely displaced sofas.
The cars that raced here are probably still ticking with heat and smelling of oil as they're being loaded onto trailers for the long trip back to garages scattered across Europe, but here we have their street-legal counterparts. Yes, the 2009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage, 2009 Audi R8 5.2 FSI, 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and 2009 Porsche 911 GT3 are for those of us who haven't raced at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, but who dream of doing so.
These are cars for people who place a premium on the driving experience, those who sometimes take the long way home from work. These are the cars for drivers who don't mind a slightly firmer ride, especially if it means they can be sure of hitting that drain cover on the long left-hander on the exit of the roundabout that's three miles from home.
To the Grid
Indicative of the breed is the 2009 Aston Martin V12 Vantage. With the Aston Martin DBS's V12 squeezed into the short-wheelbase Vantage, the engineers at Aston Martin's headquarters at Gaydon have created a truly wonderful car. It seems almost absurd that a body this small should be packing a 510-horsepower 5.9-liter V12. Aston Martin has been competing seriously at the Nürburgring 24 Hours for a number of years now and even has created the V8 Vantage N24 as a race replica, so the Nordschleife should be a home away from home for the V12 Vantage.
The Audi R8 4.2 FSI has already been a huge commercial success with V8 power, so the 2009 Audi R8 5.2 FSI's 518-hp V10 should make every road it travels turn to gold. The chassis has also received some minor adjustments, mainly to cope with the V10 but also to add a frisson of additional grit. We've eschewed the shift paddles of the single-clutch automated manual transmission in favor of the wonderful six-speed manual, and if the weather turns 'orrible then we expect the all-wheel-drive system to help this car simply walk away from the others.
The 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 makes even the mighty V12 Vantage seem under-endowed in the engine department. The supercharged 7.0-liter LS9 V8's 638 hp will open your eyes wide, but the torque is truly frightening — 604 pound-feet, and all of it available at 3,800 rpm. The ZR1 should be a force to be reckoned with in the corners as well, because weight has been kept down to 3,369 pounds by using carbon fiber for the front aero splitter, front fascia, hood and roof.
Finally, we come to the bargain basement end of the lineup with the 2009 Porsche 911 GT3, the least expensive of these cars. We know that no test of race-replica road cars is complete without this Porsche from which the 911 GT3 RSR is derived, but the engine has 80 hp less than its competition and barely half the torque of the ZR1. It will fight back with the lowest curb weight here of 3,075 pounds, but for once we don't think the 911 is going to have it all its own way.
Full Story: Edmunds - Aston V12 Vantage vs Audi R8 FSI vs Chevy Corvette ZR1 vs Porsche 911 GT3
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